Durbuy, a small town at a geographical crossroads

Travel through 3 geographical regions in just under 18km around Belgium's smallest town – Durbuy. A varied walk through meadows, forests, along the Ourthe and through this beautiful medieval city. Take your walk to the upper level with two adventurous kilometers with monkey bridges and technical paths with ropes and chains.

To end a weekend near Durbuy, do not miss this small town on the Ourthe. Unfortunately, parking and staying in Durbuy have increased in price, thanks to some more well-known investors...

But don't worry! With a few extra kilometers in your legs, you can still explore this beautiful town, starting from a hamlet Bohon. This hamlet of agricultural origin has retained its charm thanks to the various farms and cottages mainly in limestone. We use the indoor pool with ample parking to start our trip.

As the first point of our way, we choose the cave of Bohon, located on the banks of the Ourthe. This permanently closed cave consists of two floors and is still formed by an underground flow of the Ourthe. Today it is an important wintering ground for different species of bats and turned into a protected habitat for many creatures that like to stay in a cave system. Just find a little freshness at the entrance of this cave on this rather hot day. We then follow the Ourthe further downstream to just before Barvaux-Sur-Ourthe. This municipality is also part of Durbuy and, unlike Durbuy, you can reach it by train. When you do this walk from the train station, you need to add about 3 km.

Through the Côte de Saint-Antoine and a cross in memory of an accident that occurred in 1931, we descend for the first time to Durbuy. We take a long staircase to this tourist city, which is mistakenly called the smallest city in the world. With its 400 inhabitants, it is larger than the 30 rich inhabitants 'Hum' in Croatia. Nevertheless, Durbuy remains the smallest town in Belgium and perhaps Western Europe.

With its district, Durbuy has even become one of the 15 largest municipalities (in terms of area) in Belgium. With its 156.6 km², this municipality ranks 14th, just before Ghent. In the meantime, it has become Wallonia's most important tourist destination - which is understandable given the beautiful setting around this medieval town on the Ourthe. In addition, you can walk miles of fun trails through 3 geographical regions (Ardennes, Famenne & Condroz) or practice many other adventurous activities and spend the night in many campsites and other sleeping facilities in and around Durbuy.

Constrained by a disappeared path, we take the busiest Neuve Voie or also called the Mur de Durbuy, to take a quiet street after 200m towards a Glamping. We leave the rue Du Gilbert to take pretty paths through the wood of Chapli, towards a large car park on the banks of the Ourthe. Here we choose to make an adventurous loop of about 2 km through the Durbuy Adventure Park via public and challenging trails with suspension bridges or monkey bridges. Of course, this immediately adds value to this journey across the first monkey bridge over the Ourthe, to some giant wooden constructions of the altitude course that you can choose from in the Durbuy Adventure Park.

Some rocky paths take us through a beautiful valley, near the adventure park. One advantage of the increased tourism is that this 2km loop walk is really in order. This is due to the beautiful maintenance of these beautiful paths and still some monkey bridges that take us from one side to the other, over a deeper ditch.

This loop is also recommended for a mini-adventure with kids who love the best climbing walks. You can park nearby via the paid parking of the kayaks. (Durbuy Kayak Parking At De Ourthe on N833 - Rue de Comte Théodule d'Ursel 51, 6940 Durbuy).

With nearly 12 km on the clock, we still have a trip to finish and follow the Ourthe downstream towards the city of Durbuy. Along the banks of the Ourthe, on the Passerelle de Durbuy and next to the Parc des Topiares - a park with trees carved into figures - you will once again have a beautiful image of this medieval city with its historic buildings and its castle of Durbuy. Already found in documents from 1078 and because of its strategic location regularly prey to looting and wars until it was completely destroyed by French troops in the 17th century. The current castle was only rebuilt in 1726 to become the current pleasure castle on the banks of the Ourthe.

At the height of a bridge of the same castle we cross the Ourthe again towards the old town which also owes its origin to this castle.

Take a detour to the small Anticlinaal of Durbuy, then explore the city part to the large Anticlinaal of Durbuy, Roche d'Omalius or Roche de Falize. A rock face 37m high and about 375 million years old, which represent the strongly folded rock layers of the Earth's crust. Meanwhile, the background of this city has become on countless postcards. A beautiful pond with kois in the old meander of the Ourthe is the last point of this city, where one climbs by the left flank of this Roche de Falize or the Anticlinaal de Durbuy. A few more viewpoints give you the chance to take more beautiful photos of this Ourthe valley in Durbuy.

After this relatively difficult climb we follow the Ravel 7 or Tourist Path towards the banks of the Ourthe that we follow for 2.5km. An asphalt bike path - where you can also put a little speed on foot - takes us in front of Roche aux Corbeaux at the foot of the village of Bohon. A last climb of one kilometer brings us back to the village where we started this morning. We finish with a terrace at Terrasse 1850, where we enjoy this sunny day with a cheese and sausage board. A beautiful end of weekend in the Ardennes around this beautiful Durbuy.