After our sunny hike in La Roche en Ardenne, we bought the last pieces of our winter equipment for the trip to Spitsbergen and we drove to the western border of Belgium: the Belgian seaside. 62 kilometers of sand, waves and sea, of polders, dunes and wooded dunes, of harbours, light houses and windmills, and of boats, a lot of boats. And we are proud of it, of these 62 kilometers.
I was already playing with the idea for quite a while: walking from the border with the Netherlands to the one with Franc.
We would follow the “Coastal walking path“: a 180 km web of paved and unpaved paths that brings you via the hinterland or via the seashore from the north (Knokke-Heist) to the south (De Panne). One of the advantages of the path is that there are several places where you can park your car for free and you’re never walking far from the tram rails. So, when you are tired or your partner is tired or you’re at the end of Belgium, you can jump on the tram. As the paths are very well indicated with wooden coastal-walking-path-posts (and from De Haan with GR-signs, as the GR5a joins in), you don’t have to stare on a map during your hike.
So we had a plan: the first day we would walk Knokke-Heist to Bredene (+/- 25 km), the next day Bredene – Nieuwpoort and then Nieuwpoort – De Panne (the two last ones are smaller because we wanted to visit some things on the road).
We had our walking shoes.
We had our camera and we wanted to test our GoPro.
We had our raincoats and rainproof backpack.
Fortunately …
Day 1: Knokke-Heist – Bredene
We like to start our hikes early in the morning so we can take our time, enjoy the hike, the landscapes. Our day started well: it was drizzling and we heard the rain tapping on the roof of the tram that brought us to Knokke. One hour later, when we arrived, it cleared up and we started our hike. We’d planned to start at the Belgian-Dutch natural park the Zwin, but as there were no buses at this time of the year, we choose the station of Knokke as our starting point (If you’re in Belgium and in Knokke, I really recommend you to visit the Zwin). We followed the Coastal path with sometimes a deviation as we wanted to follow our intuition 🙂
Knokke. The Saint-Tropez of Belgium, the place to be to show your newest Porsche or Ferrari, to attend a party at one of the fancy clubs, to parade on the dike, to experience a luxurous evening while having a go in the casino. It’s also one of the places where a lot of (rich) people have their villa and where you’ll see golf buggies parked on a car parking place. But of course, besides this cliché of Knokke, it’s also a nice place to drink a cocktail, to go sunbathing on the beach, to visit some museums and art galleries, and to start a hike. It was clouded and quite rainy, so no sunny pictures this time …
Heist & Duinbergen. We followed the birds we spotted above the Royal Belgian Sailing club, left the beach and the dike and continued through the dunes of the Willemspark where we noticed a colony of wild rabbits.
Zeebrugge. Part of Bruges. Belgium’s most important fishing port is also a major European harbour for bulk cargo and container transport. You can also take the passenger ferry to cross the Channel. As the infrastructure is quite big, you ca’n’t continue along the beach, you have to take some motorways and it isn’t the most interesting part to walk 🙂 . Zeebrugge is more than a port. You can visit the Seafront, a theme park about the “sea and shipping, fish and fisheries”that invites you to discover the secrets of the sea and to visit a Russian submarine and a light ship. Once we left Zeebrugge, we returned to the shore and the sea where we crossed an art work of Beaufort (a tourism project that places every three years international and national monumental sculptures in the several seashore cities).
Blankenberge. It was noon when we arrived at Blankenberge and surprise surprise it started raining again. So we went to a restaurant where we drank hot soup that reinvigorated us.
The pier of Blankenberge (pictures from the archive of my boyfriend)
Wenduine. One of the highlights of this part of De Haan, is the Spioenkop, a white pavillion with a red roof standing alone on top of one of the highest dunes of the Belgian coast. You can choose: either you continue walking on the beach, either you climb the hill and enjoy the nice view on the sea and the hinterland (on a clear day you’re able to see Bruges from this point!).
De Haan. We left the beach and walked into the “wooded dunes“: 157 ha where trees, dunes and sand go hand in hand. Another reason you should take a stop at De Haan, is the Belle-Epoque styled houses that are prominently present in the whole city. It’s like being transported in time 🙂 .
The wooded dunes are located between De Haan and Vosseslag, not so far from our starting point and lodging. So that’s where ended our first day.
Day 2: Bredene – Nieuwpoort
Ok. So. Uhm. This was our plan
We started this day early, warmly received by heavy rain. This was the last picture (a little bit fuzzy I know) I took that day.
We walked under a rainy sky, it was raining cats and dogs and our rainproof clothes were put to the max. We had to struggle against the wind and couldn’t really appreciate the fishermen unloading their catch of the day. So, 10 o’clock in the morning, we returned back to the apartment in Bredene and had a leisurely, calm afternoon.
Day 3: Nieuwpoort – De Panne
Our initial plan (just for the form)
Initial, because they predicted rain again, so we decided to visit Ostend and to return to Ghent (that was the only part we kept from the original plan for this day 🙂 ).
We enjoyed our time at the Belgian coast (despite the rainy weather > normal for this season in Belgium, but stubborn as we are we really wanted to give it a try), we’ll come back during a more pleasant season.
We still have our plan.
And we have summer hiking shoes.
And summer hiking clothes.
The coastal walking path brought us alongside ports and dunes, beaches, windmills and wooded dunes. So, within a couple of months, I’ll present you: a sunny hike at the Belgian coast …
Liesbet à Paris 