Belgium - Hautes Fagnes

You don't need to go far from home to discover interesting places. Hautes Fagnes in Belgium is a place like that, and it is definitely worth a visit if you are a nature lover like I am. The vast plateau is situated partly in Belgium, partly in Germany. Some of it is even protected as a nature reserve. The Hautes Fagnes are covered in moors and marshland usually encountered in more northerly regions or higher altitudes. Due to cold climate, particularly wet, and the composition of its soil, the flora and fauna is quite extraordinary for our region.

Muriel, our host and guide tells us about the area, and how the season's subtle changes transform everything, dress the nature with wonderful artifacts, colour the trees and the grass, and create all different atmospheres.

We chose to go in autumn, but we just missed the colourful trees. Only a few leaves remain on the trees, torn down by the powerful autumn winds, and they are already brown. Winter is around the corner. The rain pours down from the blue-grey clouds, without ever stopping. After some hours in the action, we have no doubt as to what the word soaked really means. To wrap up a long walk fighting both wind and rain, we are grateful for some glühwein at Baraque Michel. They rent out cross-country skis here, an idea for a next trip?

Photos Fagnes

And then I came home...

For a long time I haven't written because I didn't know what to write. It is like everything all of a sudden stopped and from being constantly on the move, I was standing still. I had prepared for the trip during a year, then there was the trip during one year, then what? Normal life can start again except nothing feels normal anymore. The trip had been my life for a year. I had gotten used to moving every second day, packing my rucksack over and over again. My daily life was to meet new people, get to know them, then leave, meet new people and leave them too. My worries revolved around finding a place to sleep and figure out what I would eat every day. Washing my clothes was also something I sometimes worried about, but I soon realized a T-shirt can be worn more than three days.

It is difficult to come back, as it was difficult to leave. When I left I didn’t know what awaited, when I came back I realized that what was is not the same anymore. Life has continued without me and I needed to find my place again, with my family, at work, with my friends, even in my apartment with my cats.

12 months, 6 travelogues, 75 blog posts (76 with this one), 5 continents, 16 countries, hundreds of people met, new friends, some answers, many more questions... This is one way to summarize my travel around the world. I have learned so much during this year, about differences, about similarities, about happiness, beauty and ugliness, poverty… All this is part of me now, and I am part of it too. I have left a little piece of me in each place I have visited, with each person I have met… Left are the memories… and the photos.

I know now that I can do it, I can travel by myself. I manage on my own out there in the big wide world. And this world is biútiful and it is worth leaving our daily humdrum for a while and take the risk to meet the unknown. If you have the opportunity to do so, I warmly recommend it!

Another thing I have learned is that hospitality is everywhere. As the sign in the non-profit organization in Arusha states: “Kindness is a language which blind people see and deaf people hear”. It is universal. Even more than the differences, whether cultural, material or of any other kind, what struck me the most is the universalism of humankind and its values. Children are the same in Norway as in Africa or Nepal. They laugh, they play and they need the same love and attention regardless of the place in the world where they grow up. Sharing a meal in good company is the same in Peru as in Russia or South Africa, or Belgium. Understanding transcends cultural barriers, even languages.

It is not about where you are but who you are and what you do.

I felt good in all your companies: hosts, all you people who took me into your homes and treated me like family, fellow travelers with whom I shared the marvel of discovering new customs and sometimes incredible sights. I really really hope that some of you will come visit me in Belgium some day, because I miss you.

To my family, to my friends : Thank you. I couldn't have done it without you. Your constancy, your love and most of all your faith in me was the most important item in my luggage. It was not always easy, but I know that you were always there for me.

And to you, faithful readers of my blog. Thank you for reading me. It has been for me a way to make you participate in my trip, my adventures. I hope you have enjoyed and that you will continue reading, maybe share my blog with your friends if you like it. This was just the beginning, more posts and travels are in planning. In fact, I am late. I was in Prague in November, the post is planned, Norway for Christmas... Iceland is coming up in May… 

Travelling is a like a bug, once you’re bitten it never stops itching.

Yours truly,

Esthel