Purnode

A beautiful, varied route: woods and open fields, deep valleys and rolling farmland, beautiful villages and industrial heritage.

You start at the church of Purnode, next to the old Brasserie du Bocq. You can park in front of the church.

In the first part, you walk along the steep south slope of the Bocq valley. You leave it briefly to walk across open fields to the edge of the village of Dorinne. There you have a wide view over the region. After a second stretch on the valley slope, you descend through some old quarries to the Bocq. There you connect with the GR 575. This takes you first along the river, then past an impressive old quarry out of the valley, over the fields of the Condroz, and finally via a beautiful hollow path to the lovely village of Crupet. Behind the church, you will find the surrealistic grotto of Saint Anthony. A little further, from a meadow on a hillside, you have a stunning view of the castle of Crupet (you enter the meadow through a small zigzag gate, but to leave it at the bottom, you have to crawl under the fence). You leave Crupet via a steep road. At the top, you can enter the woods at a sharp bend. You walk through deciduous and coniferous forests. In April 2021, there was a sign prohibiting us from entering part of the forest. We had the impression that the prohibition did not apply to the paths running alongside it (the paths were clearly used frequently). A little further, we found a sort of gnome altar by a solitary oak. Then the path turned towards the village of Bauche. Again, we followed the path along the river. Twice it also went under a railway bridge from the old industrial line from Yvoir to Ciney. Nowadays, it is maintained and operated by volunteers of the Chemin de Fer du Bocq. At the campsite, you follow the river a little further (although a sign seems to prohibit this at first glance). At a wooden footbridge by a kind of little hut (the hut is private, but the path is public), you cross the river and walk for a while on the valley slope. You also have to cross the railway briefly. The view here is brilliant: the relief, the perfectly straight line, tunnels on both sides. A little further, you climb out of the valley until you are back in Purnode.