Another sunny day and since I wasn't feeling too bad after yesterdays' ride, and I was keen on reconnoitering the Meldert Forest, I got on the Merlin for a ride that would bring me through Meerdael Forest and the fields of Beauvechain towards Meldert. Circumvening the forest and then entering it through the iron gates I stumbled on a walking path, narrow and moist. Following this upwards towards the Sint Jan college I found a couple of very big sequoia trees. Time for a couple of pictures before riding onwards towards the main building. Following the path to the left through the gardens proved to be more tricky than I thought. The grass was high and the path wasn't very obvious. Some wooden boardwalks that were supper slippery made me dismount - remembering my fall on one of those in the Doode Beemde in october 2012, I didn't want to take any risk.

Looking around I followed the trail all the way back to where I entered the park. The trail was overgrown and riddled with fallen wood and other traps. Along with the wet underground this caused me to be very cautious. Making it back up to the main building I exited the park and set forth for l'Ecluse. I managed to run out of trail in the fields and had to descent through a mown field in order to stumble on another trail that would lead me into Aalst, just south of Hoegaarden. A nice climb out of Hoegaarden and I set forth to the north and Meldert again. Following the tarmac for a while until I reached Opvelp where I chose field trails again to lead me towards Meerdael Forest and on to Blanden. Had a good ride , building up the distance slowly.

Endomondo track


Ride Stats : 40.5K and 365 heightmeters (Garmin) in 02h06min

3335/9875