SHORT HIKING POINT FLEMISH ARDENNES

Intro

The Flemish Ardennes is a hilly agricultural region in south-west Flanders with forested witness hills up to 150 m high.

It is not a large nature reserve. The walk takes you to three small forests on top of witness hills and further through a vast agricultural area.

Fortunately, the paths between the rolling fields are largely unpaved, they are only connected by short strips of asphalt.

 

The Flemish Ardennes

At the end of the 19th century, Omer Wattez took his friend Pol De Mont with him to the top of the Geuzentoren. He looked at the hilly landscape around the Muziekberg and shouted with some exaggeration "But here is the Flemish Ardennes".

The 'Flemish Ardennes' belong to the range of hills from 50 m to 150 m above sea level that extends from Heuvelland (Kemmelberg, ...), through the Flemish Ardennes (Kluisberg, Muziekberg, ...) to Pajottenland (Bosberg, ...) and Hageland.

These hills witness hills: accents in the relief that testify to a landscape that was once much higher. Their geological history begins during the Tertiary, about 70 to 3 million years ago. Flanders is then located in the sea and the Ardennes is a plain with rivers flowing into it. In the Diestiaanzee (7 million years ago), sandbanks are deposited on a line parallel to the coast.

During the formation of alpine mountains, the Alps are elevated to a high mountain range. The plain of the Ardennes is raised in a high plateau and Flanders rises above the sea. Due to river erosion, Flanders is then sanded into a plain. But the sandbanks of the Diestiaanzee contain ferrous sandstone. These iron-rich peaks resist erosion so that the sandbanks remain as witnesses of hills in the landscape.

The isolated hills are not suitable for agriculture because of their sandy subsoil and steep relief: they are wooded with beech trees for wood extraction. Recently, nature management has replaced these beech trees with more ecologically interesting heaths and trees.

 

The walk

East Flanders was at the bottom of the pack when God distributed the nature reserves in Flanders. In this province you will not find large contiguous walking areas in which you can take a long walk in nature. Fortunately, there is the Flemish Ardennes with its residual forests.

The walk takes you to the small forests at the top of the hills of the Flemish Ardennes: the Muziekbos, the Sint-Pietersbos and the Bos Ter Eecken. The musical forest (52 ha) has nothing to do with music, the name comes from 'Muz', which means Celtic swamp. The forest consists mainly of beech trees planted for logging. The climbing paths of the Muziekbos are surrounded by tension with thick ropes that accentuates the relief. The Sint-Pietersbos (57 ha) has never been completely cleared. Here you will find a number of pedunculate oaks that are over 150 years old.

Between the forests, the route looks for as many unpaved paths as possible. Even though there are a surprising number of unpaved roads in this vast agricultural area, we have not been able to gather more than 80% of unpaved roads. Fortunately, the strips of asphalt between the walking trails are never long.

At the top of the Muziekberg is the famous Geuzentoren (built of iron sandstone) where the Flemish Ardennes got its "beggar's name". You will also find a tumulus, a Gallo-Roman tumulus in which two urns with burnt bones have been found. A little further on, there is an abandoned quarry where you can see the iron sandstone from the Diestiaan sandbanks.

 

When

The route of this walk passes through not only forests, but also large fields. So only take this walk in good weather, when there is no wind and the sun is shining.

The best period is from late spring to early fall. A hot, windless summer day is ideal for this hike.

The Muziekberg and Sint-Pietersbos are small but well-known nature reserves in the region, so it is often very crowded. But the paths between the fields are also very busy.

 

Point of departure and arrival

Centre of the village Louise-Marie (named after the first Queen of Belgium)

Address: Louise-Mariestraat 17, 9680 Maarkedal

 

By car: there is an abundance of parking, but during the weekend it is also very busy here.

By public transport: travel by train to Oudenaarde or Renaix. Then take the bus to the center of the village of Louise-Marie.

 

Practical information

In the center of the village of Louise-Marie there is the restaurant Les Soeurs Louise

https://www.les-soeurs-louise.be

The short version of this walk also passes in front of the Bistro Boekzitting.

https://www.boekzitting.be

For those who find the Flemish Ardennes too far away for a day trip: you can stay in the hostel 'De Fiertel' in Ronse. You will find not only rooms but also a camping meadow.

https://www.jeugdherbergen.be/nl/ronse

 

 

This walk is part of a series of high-level hikes in Flanders.

There is always a variant of +/- 12 km and one of +/- 20 km.

https://www.wandelpunt.be