I didn't get as far today as I hoped or wanted.
My friend couldn't join because of an injury, but she did drop me off in Spa (thanks!), where I left the train station at 9.30.
Pretty much the moment I left the town, I was in a forest with very pretty strem, which I got to cross by nice little bridges on several occasions. A bit further on, the path and the stream started to get confused about who belonged where. Which was funny. Little did I know how that would become a theme today.
I was walking through forests and what I thought were fields towards 'fagne de Malchamps'. I thought it was odd to be walking towards what the topo-guide said will be the highest point of my route in Belgium through something close to a swamp. Turns out 'fagne', 'fen' in English, pretty much means swamp/bog/marsh. And that it was. Good thing they created walkways above the ground, or I would have been wading.
It got very windy up on this marsh, and I was glad of my hardshell (for those who don't know: rain jacket (and I have trousers, too) of waterproof, breathable material, 3 layers of gore-tex. For those who may be interested: mine are Mammut). Climbed a viewing tower, bus as the thing moved in the wind and it got really cold up there, quickly descended again.
There was a bit of normal path, then a stretch of marshy forest. I got out my new poles to help me balance, finding the least-wet places to stand (my shoes have gore-tex, too, but after about 15 dunkings my socks started to feel a bit damp, like stepping stones, but far less solid. Also, it's rather slow going, every step takes a long time if you have to decide where you can next put your foot.
There was some forest, then some habitation, and I decided to eat lunch in a foresty bit between Andrimont and Ruy. Being stationary made me cold, so I didn't linger. And after Ruy I ran into another very marshy 'path', that one even worse than the ones I encountered before.
I was so glad I was finally rid of that that I completely missed the next marking, and walked on for about 20 minutes, being almost blown off the path by the wind, before I reached the next crossing and realised I must have missed something as there were no markings. So I had to go back, uphill this time, with the same strong wind. Now that was tiring.
After I found the trail again, it started hailing for a bit, which I told the weather was not part of our deal.
So yeah, I got a bit tired and cold.
Just before Stavelot, there was a stream I had to follow, and it went into a tunnel! That was awesome.
I reached Stavelot, and as that would be my place of resources for things like dinner, didn't immediately continue. I was cold, so I decided to have some tea in a café and look for a place to sleep. Thought I found the perfect one, a 'Natuurvriendenhuis' (see here ), but it was closing tonight, because of the end of the holidays, and it still being before the season. That turned out to be a bigger problem. Three hotels were all closed, B&B's all wanted at least 2 nights. I spent the better part of two hours trying to find a place to sleep, first further on, then in Stavelot itself. Eventually found a hotel at the edge of Stavelot that was open. Expensive, but well, I need to sleep somewhere, and preferably with a roof over my head and walls around me.
So, I'm still in Stavelot, unfortunately. Hope I'll have more luck tomorrow.

Geschreven door Jewaontheroad