Sunday, October 19, 2014

A DAY OUT IN THE HIGH FENS.

The day was excellent, and I figured it might be one of the last good ones this autumn, so me and my daughter off to the High Fens, Belgium's 'roof'. The High Fens is a wet moorland plateau characterised by raised bogs, peat moss, and forest, roughly between Eupen in the north, Monschau in the east, Spa in the west and Malmédy in the south. I wrote 'roof' because it's Belgium's highest area, averaging between 650 and 690 metres. The highest point is at Signal de Botrange, 694m, although a joker of an army officer, a certain Colonel Baltia, had about one century ago a small 6m high tower built on this spot so that Belgium would reach up to 700m.

Regardless, it's an beautiful place, as desolate as can be in a small country like Belgium. Since it has a subalpine climate with strong winds and severe, occasionally subarctic winters (lowest recorded temperature - 23.6°C in 1942), it's not populated and has never been. Here are a couple of pics of the Brackvenn, where we walked this afternoon. The Brackvenn is situated in the northeastern corner of the High Fens, straddling the N67, the road linking Eupen and the German town of Monschau, just across the border. The most beautiful part of the Brackvenn is the one to the south of the N67, imho:


 photo Brackvenn1_zpsf9de84e3.jpg


 photo Brackvenn2_zpsde3f5043.jpg


 photo Brackvenn3_zps3decab5b.jpg


 photo Brackvenn4_zps7d34bafb.jpg


Nite,



MFBB.

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