One of the best wild hikes in the Ardennes takes you around a vast lake formed by the Nisramont Dam.
The circuit is marked as 13km, but most people who have done this walk will tell you it feels more like 18km. You should allow about five hours to do the entire route.
The trail begins at the concrete dam built across the River Ourthe in the 1950s. There is a car park and a small café that might be open. After a steep climb uphill from the dam, the path – indicated with red signs – follows the meandering course of the river, with steep rocky sections and even staircases along the way.
The route leads to a spot where two branches of the Ourthe come together. Then you hike on, cross two footbridges and finally reach the opposite bank of the Ourthe. But you still have to hike a couple of hours before you are back at the dam.
As everyone agrees, it’s a challenging hike. But one of the best in Belgium.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
