High Fens

During my morning translation shift I got mail from INCAS about a hiking trip through the High Fens in Belgium. The High Fens are unique marshlands at the border between Germany and Belgium. The hiking trip was announced to be 25 km, guided by ranger through a restricted area and with the requirement for a second pair of shoes, because the first one will be uncomfortable after having crossed marshland and a river. That sounded exact like a trip I would like, so I studied Monday morning at home in order to be on time at the registration board.

INCAS is something you can compare with the International Committee in Sundsvall. They organize trips. They have their office in the same building as the Internation Office, and they are sponsored by the international office of the RWTH Aachen ad well as Fachochschule Aachen. But in contrast to International Committee in Sundsvall INCAS offers are for all students. Not limited to Erasmus students, Free Movers or national students, but they are free to all students. Quite a promising concept as I believe, because the integration could be much better. On the other hand I do not think this system would work in Sundsvall. Most Swedish were not interested in foreign students and erasmus students were more busy with experiencing the different cultures between themselves. Furthermore, it was rather common that a small amount of Swedish integrated into the entertaining Erasmus society than the other way around. But in Germany, where a lot more people live than in Sweden, I think such an offer can attract a sufficient amount of people for keeping the idea of integration alive.
And in my eyes it worked quite fine. On Saturday morning at 8 o'clock 24 international people, who most met each other for the first time, started from busstation in Aachen. The amount of different home countries was amazing. Germany, Iran, Pakistan, Japan, France, Slowenia, Russia, Kazakhstan, El Salvador, Kamerun, Serbia and for sure some more. Most of us were students coming from all kind of semesters. Every group was represented from early beginner to PhD student. And except one or two students everybody has been for at least one year in Germany. Most surprising for me was that people from different Nations used German instead of English to communicate. I cannot imagine us having talked Swedish among each other in Sundsvall. But Erasmus is maybe to short living for that. As far as I know there was no Erasmus student in our group. Another intersting aspect was how they talked about their studies and experiences in Germany. Some talked about it like I talk about Sweden. Like it was their best decision to go abroad to Germany. I got some very interesting views on my own country from an angle I only used to view other countries from.
But to the adventure part: We took the the bus to Eupen which is right behind the Belgium border. From there we took the bus to Botrange what is a nature centre right in the High Fens. A ranger guided as to an area where you are only allowed to enter with a guide. It were the marshlands which you can only cross on planks. Those planks were so narrow that it was impossible for two people to walk next to each other. Because of that the group got quite spread, because everybody saw something on the way to discover further or to show others around. So it could happen that there were little traffic jams on the way getting each other more in contact.
Every few minutes our guide stopped and explained something about the nature. I would have enjoyed these frequent stops, but I hardly could, because marshlands also bear some wild animals. In my case horse flies which seemed to love my blood. Their bites hurt and they are quite robust! Just hiting them does not kill them. You really have to squish them. After a while I skipped counting the bites, but I got more and more used to these little bastards so in the end they payed dearly for biting me. When we reached the woods I almost had to laugh about myself when I saw an insect sitting on my leg and when I focused for killing it, I first stopped with the thought "Oh look, it is only a mosquito"
The woods were after the marshlands the second of three parts of the hiking trip. In the beginning everybody tried to avoid dirt, but after a while everybody got stucked in mudd at least once, so shoes were ruined anyway. But for that reason I had my second pair with me. The mudd-part ended with crossing the river which we walked along all the time. I crossed it with my dirty shoes on, but the mudd kept sticking on them. After a rest we started for our last track to Eupen. But we all had miscalculated the distances. All in all we maybe really walked "only" 25, but it took so long that we thought all the time it was much longer. The way was not a big adventure anymore, but it lead us still on tiny pathes next to the river through valleys covered by forest.
Since it were the "last kilometers" the group splitted up in smaller groups of different speeds. I was in the leading group of 4 persons with the aim to reach our bus at 8 in the evening. But the way did not want to end and when we finally found a map in the way it was clear we would miss the bus we had planned to get. Even when we reached Eupen we still had to walk 2 kilometers to the "upper town" like a passanger told us. With hurting feet we checked the bus table of a nearby station and were lucky to get a bus to the main busstation after only 5 minutes waiting. I was glad we took the bus, because it was quite a distance and all way uphill. Relieved we reached the main busstation and waited for our bus back home. But still short before 9 there was no sign of the rest of the group. 5 minutes before leaving another bus came dropping of the majority of the remaining people. It was the group that was farest behind. The second group that had walked between them and us were not so lucky to get a bus, so they even walked all way, including the last two kilometers into the upper town. The most adventure trip had a couple who was brought by a generous ambulance helping them to get their bus in the last minute. In the end everybody had a different story to tell how he/she reached the busstation.
At 10 in the evening we were back in Aachen and went to the INCAS building for a barbeque. After a meal and exchanging phone numbers I was glad to be able to walk the last meters home. Others were so tired they had to call a cab. In bed, my feet hurt and my legs were tired, but I was glad for every experienced kilometer. And some connections for further meetings with the friends of the hiking trips are already planned.
Some pictures of the trip you can see here. I made more than 100 pictures on that trip. Therefore it was more than about time for a new album. Check it under the following link. Some of the landscape pictures are beautiful. And there is even a movie when we crossed some mudd pool:

INCAS - Tour through High Fens