Maasdal and Burdinale Mehaigne Natural Park

This route passes through the Natural Park of the Valleys of Burdinale and Mehaigne. Quite a mouthful for a natural park around the valleys of the Mehaigne and Burdinale rivers. This park is located in the Walloon part of Hesbaye, against the Meuse. The starting point is the car park of the old Fumal station. The old railway line is now a paved cycle path, although the quality of this cycle path is moderate.

It is very quickly climb blown out of Fumal, via the Côte de Falihou you go up to the plateau of Haspengouw in the direction of Warnant-Dreye. You pass a castle just before Warnant. It goes up and down on the Haspengouw plateau with elevations of up to 30 meters. Then you go back down to the Mehaigne valley. Then the route goes up around the Mehaigne valley.

In Ciplet you leave the Mehaigne valley and you will arrive again in the high plains of Haspengouw, with its typical concrete roads. You now cross the valley of the Burdinale River. This river has carved out a valley much deeper than the Mehaigne. Then you exit the Burdinale valley and descend back to it, following the course of the Burdinale downstream. Around Oteppe and Huccorgne, serious climbs await you.

Then you return to the Haspengouw plateau and finally descend to the Meuse valley (near Bas-Oha). The biggest difference in height on the route is when leaving the Meuse valley again: the climb of the abbey of Val Notre-Dame in Wanzoul. Then you pedal via Vinalmont towards Fumal, to avoid the small piece of dirt road near the Roua sand excavation. Then you get off at Fumal, but the journey is not over yet. You now climb the climb of Fumal and descend towards Fallais. Directly at the bottom of the descent is a beautiful castle about 100 meters from the main road. In the end there are still a few kilometers by bike in the Mehaigne valley before being in Fumal again.

Along the way, you will come across some castles, including those in the towns of Fumal, Fallais, Warnant-Dreye, Vieux-Waleffe, Envoz and Oteppe, but some of these castles seem to have hidden. You will also pass in front of an old abbey (Val Notre-Dame). Because the route is not far from the starting point of Fumal as the crow flies, it is always easy to shorten the route.

The roads in this area are largely of good quality. However, concrete roads on the Haspengouw plateaus can be muddy after rainy periods and during harvest time as mainly agricultural traffic uses these roads and sand can flow from surrounding fields (in the absence of ditches/ditches along the fields).