Short stage along some lakes and canals. First part mostly on forest paths, second part on asphalt. The detour at Diane-Capelle as we walked it here will no longer be necessary from June 2022, then you can follow the canal from the start.
Since we are in no hurry today, we start the day with some housekeeping; the inner and outer tent are getting a good clean and when we leave, the tent looks fresh again.
We are sure that the next campsite will have a place for us. Since this campsite was completely full yesterday, we called just to be sure. We were allowed to come, there was certainly room, but given the crowds over the Ascension weekend it is not as quiet as usual and we can expect music, barbecues and some noise until late in the evening. And it was finely emphasized that we should not come and whine afterwards if we are inconvenienced by this. Nice prospect… But there is no other campsite near, so we have little choice.
We walk out of the village and wave to the helpful campground owner who passes by in the car.
The trail leads into the woods and we walk past a couple of small lakes where we hear the frogs croaking loudly. When we come out of the woods, according to the route we should follow the canal, but it turns out to be closed. According to the signs, the road should be accessible again from May 26, 2022 (yay, today is the 27th!) but they are clearly not ready yet. A detour for cyclists is indicated, which we follow through the village of Diane Capelle. After about 3 kilometers we finally reach the canal and make a short break on a picnic bench.
The wind is strong along the canal and we step briskly. It’s funny that if you look at the map, it looks like we are in the middle of a lake, but we are walking along a canal with dikes on either side and there is no lake to be seen. Only when we cross the canal with a bridge, we see large lakes behind the dikes, where lots of people are fishing.
We followed the canal to the village of Gondrexange, where the campground is located. It is with some suspicion, we enter the campground. It’s still early and pretty quiet, but we see several groups of campers standing together, so we strategically pick a spot where we hope to have the least amount of disturbance. As we have already seen along the road, there’s a lot of fishing in this area and the groups at the campsite are mainly fishermen who have a nice weekend out on Ascension Day. To our surprise (and joy) it is not too bad. Most of them are asleep earlier than we are and apart from some chatter we have no problems. All in all, a storm in a teacup… We still have a wonderful stay at the campsite.
