I went to the Manto caves in the Soliére valley.

A walk tailored for younger hikers where climbing to 'trous' and caves are the theme. Ruins of a castle, a legend about gnomes seeking revenge, and a fairy-tale Solières valley take you through this Malvin forest over 8 fun kilometers.

One of my favorite places in Belgium is the Condroz, particularly its Meuse valley. A region with a rich history and steeper slopes, where you can even climb up on hands and knees.

We start from a parking area behind Tavern-Brasserie 'L'Elysee Beaufort', which you can reach via Rue de la Poudrerie - at the foot of the ruins of Château de Beaufort. Once a medieval fortified castle from the 12th century that was destroyed by the French in 1554. These ruins cannot be freely visited and are only open during a few weekends in the summer holiday. So today we pass by this ruin and follow the mountain stream - Solières upstream.

Solières, a tributary of the Meuse that springs from the Namur province at an altitude of 260 meters and then flows between Ben and Ahin. These villages and their hamlets used to belong to the province of Namur, but the municipal merger of 1977 decided to incorporate these municipalities into the Liège city of Huy.

After about 1 km of following this stream, we come to the isolated buildings of Poudrerie de Lovegnée or the old gunpowder factory located in this valley. Initially for military purposes, later for extracting limestone in the numerous quarries of the Meuse valley. The fact that producing gunpowder is extremely dangerous meant that this valley was never fully developed, resulting in a lovely piece of preserved and protected nature area today. Since the mid-20th century, this factory has been closed, and you can sleep in the old director’s house that has been converted into a gite.

The riverbed of Solières and a nice path lead us to the foot of Trou Manto. We take a steep path with the help of a yellow garden hose toward the entrance of the caves of Trou Manto. Nice paths in this rocky area take us further to some cave systems such as the Saint-Etienne cave and the large rock shelter of Ben-Ahin, also known as the "Cave of the Romans". Due to misuse in the form of vandalism and the dangers that exploring these caves brings, most cave entrances are closed to the general public by means of bars. Or are these bars at the entrance of the caves perhaps to protect against the 'Nutons' or gnomes? According to the local legend of Les Nutons du Trou Manto, these small friendly beings took revenge after being treated poorly. We leave them in peace and descend again to the valley of Solières, where we enjoy a charming little waterfall and have a small picnic at the foot of the caves.

The next part of the walk takes us further through this forest of Malvin (Bois de Malvin). We take connecting paths through some meadows and along fields to head back toward the start of the walk. The ruins of Château de Beaufort appear at the top of the hill, and a bit further the old quarry that has since been transformed into a nature reserve (Réserve naturelle domaniale de Lovegne-Bosquet) mark the end of our walk. Once again, a beautiful piece of Belgium discovered, enjoying a lovely spring day in the Meuse valley near Huy.