Botrange - Eupen: Longest descent in Belgium

Fitter or younger hikers often prefer to do this tour in the opposite direction, calling it "the longest ascent in Belgium." However, for me, it should be a bit easier: I renamed it "the longest descent in Belgium." Over 429 meters downhill, spread over more than 26 km: it’s not a steep descent. Often it even seems more like a false flat, but there is enough descent to maintain a slightly brisker pace occasionally (without getting out of breath).

This time, it’s not a circular hike that brings us back to our car at the end. You’ll either need two cars or must use public transportation. The starting point of the tour is easily reachable by public transport: the TEC bus 390 takes you from the NMBS train station in Verviers to Signal de Botrange in about 20 minutes, running hourly. In Eupen, there is an hourly train to Oostende (via Verviers) in the evenings. If you're coming by train to Eupen: there’s also a bus from there to Botrange. If you’re driving, I think the best place to park is near Haas or Malmedyer Strasse in Eupen, and take the bus to Botrange (which shortens the hike by a few kilometers and spares you the climb through Eupen at the end of the tour).

However, a warning: This tour leads through relatively uninhabited and inaccessible areas: only at the beginning and end are there residential areas (and eateries), and you won’t have GSM reception everywhere. Be careful and take enough water and snacks for the journey!

We begin our longest descent, of course, at the highest point in Belgium: Signal de Botrange at 694 meters above sea level. Cross the fairly busy road and take the red and white markings of the GR573, which we will follow all the way to Eupen. After 150 meters, at the viewpoint, the path turns right onto a gravel path. To the left, you have expansive views over the peat bogs and to the right, a strip of forest that hides the parallel road from sight and sound. After 1 kilometer, you come to a hiking tree that tells you it’s still 20 km to Eupen to the left.

You walk 2.5 km along this unpaved road, which leads slowly downhill between marsh and forest edge, and then – after a slight rise over an open section – turns left into the forest.

In very wet weather or after prolonged rain, the following section along the Helle stream may be muddy and difficult to hike in some places. In this case, you could briefly go right here to switch to the bike path RV4 150 meters ahead on the left and rejoin the GR573 4.5 km later. A lot faster and with dry feet, but you'd miss the most beautiful and wildest part of this hike...

In early July 2015, it was very dry, so I stayed on the GR and continued along the forest edge down to the Helle stream. Just before the Pont Marie-Anne Libert (a botanist from Malmedy in the 19th century), we cross the 600 m height line. After the (somewhat wobbly) wooden bridge over the Helle, we begin the most adventurous part of the tour.

We turn right over the narrow footbridge through an area where many traces remind us of the severe forest fires of 2011. The path follows the course of the stream, sometimes very close to the bank, sometimes a bit further away. Regularly, you walk over a boardwalk, but there are also longer stretches where you need to search for the footpath through the moor or quite lush vegetation. And on the sections in the forest, watch out for the tree roots!

After following the Helle for 4 km, we leave the gently hilly landscape covered with marsh grasses behind us. We reach a field path and see a picnic table on the other side of the stream and a paved path. (The already mentioned RV4 reconnects here to the GR573). You could cross the stream over some stepping stones, but since we prefer to keep our feet dry, we take the small bridge that we can see about fifty meters to the left among the trees.

From here, the landscape changes completely: we leave the moor behind and enter the Herzogenwald. We continue our tour along the slightly elevated paved road and follow this for 500 m through the forests. Then the GR splits off again: here we follow the narrow path, equipped with a wooden railing, which leads steeply down to the left into the forest. The narrow forest path, interspersed with roots, follows the slope through the woods; we continue to follow the Helle, which now seeks its way lower in the valley to our left.

Near a junction (the path to the right leads to Ternell), the narrow path becomes a wide, unpaved forest road. The next hour is the easiest part of the hike, and on these long, straight, and well-trodden gravel roads, the pace can be stepped up a bit. We stop at left intersections and continue to follow the stream through the forest, even though most of the time it’s no longer visible behind the trees. The wide gravel road takes us for kilometers through the Herzogenwald. Around the 15th kilometer of our tour, we cross a tributary and reach another picnic spot to the left of the path. Here – or at the rest area at the further branching – is again a good place to take a short break before continuing our way diagonally to the left.

A sign warns in French and German that it is a difficult hiking trail, but we aren’t deterred: parents with strollers will struggle, but it’s not much more difficult than some of the narrower paths along the wooded slope, over some rock slabs on the bank of the stream, and under some fallen trees. Finally, we leave the valley and come to the Hillsperre. There, a part of the water is diverted through an underground channel into the Getzbach.

Behind the building over the canal crossing, we cross the intersection and continue along the wide forest path towards Eupen. We are still on the right bank of the Helle and at every junction, we follow the left path. When our counter reaches about 20 km, we come to a bridge over the Helle, where we also find a rest area to take a short break before reaching Eupen.

Across the bridge, we follow the GR on the wide forest road to the right and soon reach the first buildings of Eupen. We follow Hutte Street and Gulcher Street, turning left onto the busier Schils Street (N67) to the roundabout at Malmedyer Street and Haas Street.

For those who left their car nearby, the hike is over. The others can take the (hourly) bus to the train station from here. I just missed the bus and continued on to the station: up the wide and fairly busy Frankendelle at the roundabout, on the other side of the street (where the heavily trafficked road turns right), you can pick up the GR573 again. It leads up some stairs along the slope and comes out at the youth hostel on Stockberger Street. This takes us through Eupen along Hisselsgasse and Hook Street to the train station, from where a train to Oostende departs every hour (in July 2015 at 17 minutes past the hour).

Hike done on July 07, 2015.