French and Belgian Border - 9th July 2007

Group Leader - Frank Tullett

This was the 6^th Annual walk on the other side of the channel for the walking group.

Twenty intrepid walkers rose at dawn to cross to France via the Euro tunnel travelling in five cars. We were especially grateful to the drivers this time as we had a longer drive in France to the start of our walk at Boeschepe near the Belgian border. In fact we crossed into Belgium and back again into France on the 12-mile walk. Frank ceremoniously marked each border by flying the appropriate flag from his rucksack.

For most of the walk we were blessed with good weather and were able to enjoy our picnic lunch sitting on a grassy bank in the sunshine. The route did alarmingly have several “mountains” marked on the map, Mont Noir, Mont Kokereel, Mont des Cats, but they proved to be only a little uphill and we all coped well. We were rewarded too when we climbed up to the monastery to find that the monks there make decidedly good cheese and beer. However after a welcome stop in the bar the rain finally caught up with us and we were a rather bedraggled party that arrived back at the cars.

Still it was not long before our trusty drivers had got us back to our favourite restaurant at L’Escale where we all enjoyed dinner in true French style before our journey back to England. Is this the Country Walking Group or the Countries Walking Group?

We are grateful to Frank as usual for organising the day and for his team of walkers who walked out the route for us. Merci tout le monde