Having a day off from work I wanted to take advantage of the nice and quiet spring weather to do a long ride. I chose for the eastern part of a trail that is called the SGR BW 217. This is a 217K long looping trail though Brabant Walloon that follows mostly GR paths. You can ride it as a whole but given the sheer lenght this might take you an entire day. I decided to pick in on the trail as it passes Nodebais. My plan was to follow it to the east and then back until it crosses the Ravel 2 just before Perwez. It started along familiar tracks, lots of cobbles and zigzagging through Nodebais and Tourinnes la Grosse before moving towards Beauvechain. The trails were mostly dry - this is mainly an offroad track so that does matter - but here and there in some hollow road I would still have to be careful not to ride through some puddle. I was riding with the Nokian NBX Lites 2.0 and with a road cassette so I wasn't looking for steep hills. In the beginning the trail ondulates up and down, but nothing drastic. I was enjoying the fine weather and breathing in the spring air. Making my way towards St Jean Geest and then towards St Remy Geest this was about the furthest I had already ventured before on my offroad expeditions in that direction. From now it was all 'new' so I was exited. More cobbles and by now I began to feel them. Passing through the Parc in Helecine and then making my way towards Linsmeau I was now close to the eastern border of Brabant Walloon. To the southeast I could see the chimneys of the nuclear powerplant in Huy, breathing out hot steam. In the region of Orp Jauche follows what I consider a highlight of this track; a nice singletrail following the river Gete. I stopped to take a picture of the Roman church in Orp-Le-Grand before venturing along another backtrack further to the southwest.

A bit further I was pleased to be on small tarmac roads for once. The kilometers were adding up nicely and I felt my neck and legs ache from the continuing bashing of the sometimes very narrow and rough offroad tracks. Paris-Roubaix came to mind from time to time. Remember these are GR trails, some are easy on the bike, but some are pretty tough. And that, of course, is what makes them so exiting. Passing Folx-les-Caves and spotting the windmills of Perwez at the western horizon I understood that I had to start to look out for the Ravel crossing. After Ramillies-les-Offus it was suddenly there. The tarmac trail connecting Hoegaarden to Namur. I wanted to check how much heightmeters I had at this point on my GPS but screamed out my frustration when I noticed I had forgotten to press the START button. This doesn't bother you following a track, but it doesn't record the actual ride. Bit of a let-down and I was suddenly feeling very tired. But I still had to bike quite a distance. First following the Ravel towards the north and passing Jodoigne and Hoegaarden. Then from Hoegaarden riding towards Meldert. The climb out of Hoegaarden hurt my legs; I rode towards Meldert and then onwards to Beauvechain. From here it was only 12K to reach my home. 
I had a fine but very demanding ride. I did 50K of the SGR BW217 trail and about the same distance 'getting there' and 'getting back home'.  


Ride Stats : 101K and 760 heightmeters (Polar) in 5h11mins

2393/23180