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‘Twixt two regions

The Marcq-Mark river flows between Vlaanderen and Wallonie trying to decide which region it prefers.

In this area the plains of Flanders and Hainaut are marked occasionally by small, sharp hills, many of which dictate the route of the Ronde van Vlaanderen which annually passes through Geraardsbergen just north of here.

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Marcq-Mark

The river Marcq-Mark runs in and out of Wallonie and Vlaanderen almost as if it cannot choose between the regions!

 

On this walk, we were forced off our planned route twice.

The first time because we walked right into the middle of what was probably illegal hunting. There were no signs anywhere in the vicinity and the hunters were actually shooting from a marked, public footpath.

Here are two photos, one of the hunters themselves – a bit shaky on a 20x digital zoom – and the second of their vehicle registration plates, encountered at the other side of the forest after our long diversion. So guys, if you were hunting illegally, someone somewhere can now know who you are!

The second diversion was the result of a more natural barrier: flooding on the path above Deux-Acren. J and I negotiated the first few deep pools but it quickly became obvious that it would be necessary to backtrack as far as the cobbled bridge we’d met earlier.

• Walking route: Akrenbos – Bois de Lessines – Deux-Acren – Akrenbos (loop) detailed commentary
• Distance: 18km
• Modified extensively from original route by Gert Sonck at Originele wandelingen in België

Detailed commentary (of original route)

Larger map of this route

1. Leave the church on your right and follow the road straight through a crossroads for about a half-mile, then turn left into a track through a wooded strip. At the end of this strip, the track turns left and out of the woods. Follow the grassy path in the direction of the houses.
2. At the houses, turn right into a lane and go sharp right soon after, back towards the woodlands. On reaching them, turn left. Follow the path as it bends to the right going downhill. Stay left as you meet a stream and then a road. Turn left onto the road very briefly, leaving it again to the right on a less used path with a sign prohibiting motorised access. Follow the path straight.
3. Ten meters after the forest on the left there is a knot tree left of the road and ten meters past the tree you leave the road: you turn right into a not so visible path through the forest. At the beginning of the path you will find a sign that prohibits access to motorized users. After four hundred meters, cross a water channel and turn right and then head straight as far as a wide forest road. Turn left onto this.
4. After about half a mile at a crossroads with many signs, turn right into the forest. After three hundred metres more, at a gate with more signs, go straight on (Drève du Château). Two hundred metres further, turn left off the track (marked red-white GR cross) at a crossroads. The road can be muddy. To the right through the trees is a clearing. When level with the far end of the clearing, a walking marker can be seen to the left: at this point take a grassy path right, leaving the woodland alongside the clearing. Turn right at the road (Rue Gilles).
5. An hundred metres on, at the boundary between Deux-Acren and Lessines, turn right on the Drève du Château back into the woods as far as the crossroads with the red-white GR cross from earlier. Now turn left onto a wide forest track and follow it straight as it thins out. Through heavier foliage, continue until eventually reaching the gate from earlier. This time turn left onto the track and follow it as far as a track (Marais d’Acren) onto which turn left.
6. Pass houses as the road turns to asphalt and starts to bend right. Opposite an old farmhouse (number 40), turn left into a lane. After a sharp right onto the Rue Glacenée, continue almost as far as the end of the road, turning right onto a gravel track a little before. After another half mile, reach the Marais d’Acren again, turn left onto it and enter Deux-Acren, continuing as far as the main road (Rue d’en Bas), onto which turn right.
7. Take the first left onto Remicourt and turn left at a sharp bend to the right, onto a smaller road running through fields. After a bridge over a stream, keep right at the fork, passing two paths on the left side. On a cobbled bridge go straight, and the road is now a smaller grassy path leading through forest and grassland. The path approaches a small asphalt road (Chapelle Saint Pierre) but turn left onto the path to the left (red-white sign), running alongside a meadow as far as the River Marcq. Cross the river and turn immediately left.
8. Follow the trail alongside the river as far as a small tributary of the river. Now go straight on a small road and follow it as far as the line of fields, at which point turn right (blue arrow). Go straight along the edge of the field as far as the road (Chapelle Saint Pierre again) and turn right onto it. Level with the end of a pond and at a sharp bend, take the grassy path to the right. The path returns to the river, near the bridge encountered earlier. This time follow the bank in the other direction, with the river at right. At a road bridge over the river, turn left momentarily onto the road and then right again onto the path of a nature walk.
9. Go straight, either through the pasture or beside the river. The blue arrows of the nature walk eventually lead to a pedestrian bridge over the river. Cross it and at the other side, turn briefly left then go right again, gently uphill as far as the road (Chapelle Saint Pierre yet again) onto which go straight.
10. Cross over the Rue de Viane and go straight onto a lane. At the highest point of the field the road runs out but continue straight in the same direction. Reaching a crossroads of grassy paths, turn left. Four hundred metres on at some farm buildings, turn right onto another straight grassy path.
11. At the end of the road, turn left and soon after right again, following a track through a field. Follow the track beside the Domaine as far as the road Akrenbos-Deux Acren road. Turn left back to Akrenbos.