W.E. Bowman

The Barrage de Nisramont, near La Roche in Luxemburg province was the meeting place for the Himlung Expedition members' first field trip, on Sunday 04 May at 10:30 am. Some members were so eager to start our 25km planned walk that they were already there at 10 am, only to discover that the pub near the barrage was still closed.

At 10:30 every expedition member we expected was in the starting blocks, Geert Stoffelen (who could not attend) was more than adequately replaced by Sandra, the soon-to-be president of the Himling 2003 fan club. The weather was fantastic, clear blue skies and temperature was 20 C, maybe higher during the afternoon.

The trip started at a leisurely pace following the GR trail, along the Ourthe Orientale. Christel was taking 'action pictures' for the Himlung-website, an ongoing project which she masterminded. The only real action we noticed was Wig ( that's short for Hedwig ) climbing an almost 3 meter high rock.

Jordaan was leading the pack, handling his ski-sticks, desperately looking for a patch of snow.

After some two hours we failed to miss the left turn in our route. The path now climbed out of the river valley, leading us in the direction of Achouffe.

When Frank threatened to eat one of the participants we had a picknick break near the Belle Meuse brook. Some 15 mins. after leaving this spot we were in Achouffe, the first 'staminet' stop. We had a drink there and also announced the management of the place we would come back for the evening meal. Yannic (among others) tasted a glass of the local Achouffe brew. This he liked so much that he would order a 0.75 liter bottle of it when we were at the 2nd 'staminet' in Engreux.

Between Achouffe and the bridge over the Ourthe at Rensiwez we had to cross a small river. It was about 10 cm deep. Some participants refused to swim over. This caused a significant delay of about 2 mins.

A small 'variante', off the GR, was used to avoid the camping ground at Rensiwez. After this steep ascent a gently climbing track lead us to the village of Engreux, were we had our second drinking stop.

From Engreux we descended to the Ourthe Occidentale. We were fortunate that a small barrage had been constructed there. This made crossing the river relatively easy. On the other side of the river we took the path back to Nisramont Barrage. Near the Belvedere somebody forgot to follow the main path, and we had to scramble our way up to the viewpoint... From the Belvedere it was a mere 15 mins to the place where our walk had started.

We decided not to have a drink there and drove straight away to the restaurant. Some people complained that Frank was driving much too fast. But that is just the way you drive a Toyota Taliban... Still, all cars and their passengers reached the Restaurant near the Pecherie at Achouffe relatively unscathed at 7 pm.

The service at the restaurant was below par. Herman made a desparate attempt to convince the management to serve what we had ordered, but this was of no avail. The situation was complicated by the fact that Sandra and Yannic were not present when the distribution of victuals started. We ended up with a set of spare spare ribs ... This was not the best restaurant we could have chosen...

When the banquet was finished we discussed financial and technical matters. Ideas about how to get sponsoring were put forward. Christel, Kris, Davy and Johan bear the brunt of the effort to get this expedition organised. They cannot be praised enough. At 9:30 pm the meeting was dismissed.

Final conclusion was that we need more of these meetings.