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Vallée du Samson

— Non-stop rain and a long diversion due to hunting: it's everything an autumn hike in Wallonie can offer!”

Despite a blithe forecast of sunshine, the rain fell in fits and starts throughout a rather grey day in the Vallée du Samson.

Even so, the beauty of the area is obvious enough and what’s more, there’s plenty of those little oddities that give many walks in the Province de Namur the air of a treasure hunt!

• Walking route: Mozet – Goyet – Faulx-les-Tombes – Mont Ste Marie – Mozet (loop) detailed commentary
• Distance: 23km (21km on planned route)
• Route based on original source by Gert Sonck at Originele wandelingen in België

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Vallée du Samson

Wet weather made for damp woods and boggy fields as autumn tightened its grip on the Vallée du Samson.

At Mont Sainte Marie stand the remains of a twelth century Romanesque church. The nave was destroyed in the eighteenth century, leaving a since restored campanile. This bell tower is now a memorial to Liedekerke crusaders who were saved from danger by the Virgin Mary astride a mule.

The Virgin popped up again in 1878 at nearby Gesves, where a local woman was saved from certain death by a miracle at Lourdes. This is one of the very few miracles acknowledged by Lourdes’ ecclesiastical authorities.

The walking route also passes the Château de Faulx-les-Tombes, which is alleged to have been host to weekend orgies attended by many Belgian notables including archtattler Michel Nihoul, a fellow rather too closely connected to the Dutroux affair. Probably no virgins there.

In another display of rampant self-interest from the stinking rich, we were also forced to divert our route due to a hunt in the Bois de Haugimont. This detour is marked on the map below, but the textual commentary remains faithful to Gert Sonck’s original.

• More comments on Belgian hunting elsewhere

Detailed commentary

Larger map of this route

1. At the church, follow the Tienne Saint-Lambert uphill. Take the first left onto the Rue de Royer, then first right at the crossroads onto the Rue de Loyers. Once this road climbs gently and turns quite sharply to the left, turn right onto the Rue du Calvaire, passing a crucifix at the junction.
2. At the end of the road, head straight into the woodland. Out the other side of the wood, continue straight until you reach a road. Turn right onto it in the direction of a farm. Pass a private property sign and then go straight past the farm on the left side following a path that runs left through the fields.
3. After descending some way through a couple of homemade turnstiles, you’ll reach a crossroads at the corner of the woodland. Take the wider, marked track to your right. The track runs straight into the opposite woodland before splitting soon after and you take the right fork that runs high above the valley of Samson.
4. You emerge from the wood eventually and go straight along the forest edge with the Château de Goyet in the distance. Descending to houses, the surface becomes asphalt and you descend straight on, passing a Swiss-style chalet on your right. At the bottom the large, grey Foyer St Antoine is in front of you, so turn left onto the Rue de Mozet and cross a bridge over the Samson where you’ll meet the main road (Chée de Gramptinne). Turn left onto it.
5. Cross the main road carefully and take the first road climbing to the right (Try de Goyet). After the last houses, the surface becomes a track that runs beside woods and then between fields. You’ll pass an artwork that appears to consist of three megaphones. It’s Le Cor d’Alfred by the local artist Yannick Lëen. Follow the track straight and keep left on any forks you meet (access is always forbidden with the other options anyway). The track stretches out across a long plain and after rising gently, you’ll find the roadside chapel of Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, built by two brothers in 1850. Go right at the chapel on a narrow path.
6. For more than two kilometres, you follow the same marked path through woods and fields, passing another artwork in the process. Eventually, you descend to asphalt of the Rue du Piroy and the hamlet of Strud.
7. At a t-junction with a crucifix, turn right onto the Rue des Raspailles then go straight onto the Rue de Han. Rising beyond the houses, the road becomes a track and the only marked trail through a forest. Eventually, you come to a forest road which you take going left and pass a chalet just behind the treeline. At the next crossroads turn left. Follow this road as it descends through fields until you reach the N941. Cross straight over and onto the Rue de Bloskin.
8. Follow this straight up, passing over a junction and into the forest. At the top of the forest you’ll find another artwork. Ignoring two paths left and one path right, you continue straight on a narrow, downhill path. Stick to this path, even at a crossing. At the bottom of it, next to another artwork, you’ll go into a tunnel. The path takes you onto asphalt where you now go right (Fond de France).
9. At the next intersection, follow the Rue de Jauss left but very quickly leave the road again for an uphill asphalt road to your right. Beyond the farm pass straight through the meadow. In the copse beyond, you’ll find another work of art consisting of long, bended boards of wood. It’s called Ruban and it was created by Swiss artist Mireille Fulpius. After five years the wood has turned rather mossy which makes it harder to spot on an autumn day! At the end of this copse you cross diagonally right to the gate of the field, next to which you’ll find a narrow passage into the wood.
10. Coming to a campsite, go left and follow its perimeter rather than turning off out of the woodlands. A marked trail then descends through the woodland to the Samson and an equestrian centre.
11. The path eventually arrives at the main road (Chée de Gramptinne) near the château. Don’t cross just yet. Instead turn right and follow parallel to the green fence of the château. When it reaches a corner, cross the road and follow the path into the woods which follows a creek. This path follows a stream (which is initially on the other side of the fence until you clear the grounds of the château) and it was very muddy after just a bit of rain. The path is actually marked private but it appeared nevertheless to be the one specified by the original source.
12. Eventually you come to a junction. Turn right uphill for some time. Pass a very deep crater which is to your right behind the trees – old maps suggest the presence of a stone quarry here and this would indeed be typical – and continue straight on. Some one hundred meters on, you come to a t-junction: one path goes left into the fields but you should go uphill to the right. From the wood you descend to the chapel and tower of Mont Sainte Marie. At this crossroads, turn right onto asphalt and beyond a house, the road becomes a track running into the woods. Keep left throughout and follow the path by the edge of the forest. Eventually you’ll come to a t-junction with a wider forest road. Go left and out of the woods to the main road (N941), cross over and walk straight ahead through the fields. This track narrows before arriving at the road on the edge of Mozet. Turn right and you’ll soon reach the church.