Bousval - Ry d' Hez - Abbey of Villers - La Roche - Bousval

Delightful route in a very beautiful area! A good portion of mud along the way is certainly not excluded. You can park in the square next to the church of Bousval. Step down to the Dijle. Just over the little bridge, take the path to the right marked with GR. The GR leads you through the forest up, past a chapel in open field and back down into the valley of the Ry d' Hez. At the stream, the GR goes left, but this route goes to the right. In this valley, the beavers are king. Their dams and ponds have ensured that sometimes alternative paths need to be sought, but this remains one of my favorite pieces of nature. You follow this stream for quite a distance until you are led out of the valley by a forest and end up in the corner of an open field. After a while in open fields with vast views, you descend via a forest path to the abbey ruins of Villers-la-Ville. On nice days, you can encounter quite a few hikers there. You leave the abbey site through an old gatehouse. The next kilometers go through woods. You now briefly follow GR markers again. Eventually, you cross a field, climb out of a little valley, and descend to the hamlet of La Roche and the valley of the Thyle. Then it immediately goes back up to a plateau where you walk alongside fields again. Via a fantastic sunken path, you descend again to the Dijle, only to immediately climb back up the other valley slope. Finally, you walk back to the starting point via the hilltop - with views of the castle of Bousval, the vineyard, and the village.