Forests around the Klaverberg

Meet at the Cristal Arena (V), the stadium of dutch champion Genk at Stadionplein 4. If there is no football, you have a sea of parking. Take the wide gravel path along the railway, right next to the stadium. Behind it you can immediately see a few old terrils from the Zwartberg mine. The pebble turns into a forest path. Where that path is just starting to rise, you come with a zigzag into open terrain. Follow that wide track, turn left up and keep left along the long side of the fenced meadow. Right in front of you you have an excellent view of the terril of the Klaverberg 1. At the end of the meadow the road splits. Keep left and 100 m further, at a triple jump, step uphill on the gravel path. A little later you get a wide panorama of church towers and old mine shafts above the woods and the Cristal Arena in all that greenery. At the fork, before the foot of the Klaverberg, turn right. If you fancy a little extra, you can try to get up the mountain. So our route goes to the right, to that lower, bare, neatly landscaped terril that we had been walking along for a while. At the foot of it, keep the flank to the right, cross the ditch and descend steeply. Keep following that path if it makes another nod down at the edge of the forest. A little further on, turn right, into the forest between the birch trees and onto a gravel path. Not 100 m further, choose the narrower path to the left at an oak tree on the corner. That path begins to undulate, the forest becomes denser. On the right are mainly pines, on the left mainly birches. Ignore a path on the left and keep walking straight until you reach a T. Here you take a right, parallel to the cycle path that you are forced to follow a little further, towards cycle junction 39. At the end of this long straight you turn to the right, then follow it to the left. At the T with a wider cycle path turn right and immediately left onto the sandy forest path. Riders sometimes pass by here and you have to go over or past fallen pine trees a few times. Then the forest path becomes a wide, straight firebreak. At a crossroads of forest paths – straight ahead you would walk into shady forest – turn right, another straight path. Ignore two intersections – on the left you will see a few roofs of the Dennenweelde 2 district – and at the T turn left and immediately right again, into a narrower forest path. At a junction of paths – 50 m in front of a high-voltage line and a large storage facility – turn right. You now follow this path for a long way, even after it has turned into asphalt. If you are quiet, with some luck you can see a few skittish deer in the forest. With the asphalt you come to more open terrain and at junction 39 3 it goes straight again. Once you walk under the high-voltage line, turn right for the bridle path to junction 83. You also continue to follow that direction at the crossroads: the leftmost forest road. At the T-jump you first turn left and 80 m further diagonally right onto the narrower path. Apparently quite a few mountain bikers pass through here. You follow this winding path for a while, even if it suddenly turns to the right and takes a solid bump over a small slope. Back down you enter more open terrain, again to junction 83 and along watery peatland. There are torches in the water and as you approach the board, the frogs jump into the pool by the dozens. Bend along with this wide path to the left and continue to follow the peatland. When it finally goes uphill again, you walk to the wooden bareel. If you look over your shoulder on the left, there is a football field 4 . In front of you you see a pond. Follow the path to the right. Just up the ridge and then to the left. Here you can see far again. Vast greenery, terrils, the above-ground wheel of a mine shaft and a church tower. If you reach a larger lake on your left, you walk in a wide bend to the right. You come again to that fenced meadow from the beginning, zigzag down into the forest and follow right to the starting point.