Maas, Channel and Fort Route

Why worthwhile? Alternating walk with beautiful views, technology (sluice / lock) and history (fort).

Starting point: centre Kanne [Vlaanderen], easy to reach within 5 minutes from Maastricht (NL). Park on the Statiestraat (parking spaces) or on the small square on this street.

Distance: 13,5 km

Details walk through forests, across field- and asphalted roads. A steep climb once in a while.

Route description:

From the Statiestraat we walk across the small square (parking spaces) in south eastern direction through the Bejats (street name): we follow the yellow route markings (at the square a (walk and bike) information sign is located). After several meters left through a narrow street and then keep left (Brugstraat). Then we go right past the elementary school in to the Sint Hubertusstraat. At the end cross it and walk out of the village here up the hill (Pruisstraat).

After 100m go right up the wooden steps and leave the asphalted road walking up the hill on a narrow path. At the top at the tree line (with a beautiful view across Kanne) we go right and follow the Poppelmondeweg (we are still following the yellow route markings). We walk across a piece of Dutch territory and past a football field we soon reach Hoeve Caestert (here we go into Belgium again). We pass it on the right and continue on into the forest. We reach several fields with again a view of the (new) bridge of Kanne. Here we take a right angled corner and walk back towards the edge of the forest. Now a (steep) descent towards the connection piece between the channel and the Maas follows. Once down we have arrived in Petite Lanaye (Klein-Ternaaien).

We follow the straight road in southern direction (watch out for traffic!) and reach the lock Lanaye (Ternaaien) where one has a great view at the ships being locked in and out. Via the bridge we cross the lock and continue on the road towards the in the large distance already visible bridge across the Albert channel. We now follow the red route markings. We cross the bridge and walk upwards across the asphalted road. A hairpin bend follows and after several hundred meters we have a beautiful view on our right across the bridge, the Limburgse town of Eijsden and Heuvelland.

The road still continues up towards a large plateau with on both sides of the road large fields. We cross the plateau and where the road descends again we see a small hill to our right with a wooden cross. After the bend we continue right up a field road. At the edge with a field we continue to the right on a broader field road (we do not go back down to our left here!). A wide bend to the left follows and we now enter on a (former) military zone: Fort Eben-Emael.

We now walk around the large complex of which the domes are very conspicuous (the fort itself is mainly built underground). We follow the field road, at a T-junction we go left and an iron turning gate follows. We keep the domes to our left side. Walking through the grass we reach a shelter: we go around it to the right side, down and then continue left. At the next shelter we go back into the forest: a steep descent follows. At the bottom (to our right a small channel) we go right and follow the small channel towards the larger Albert channel.

At the channel we go left, then around the small yachting club via the left and then cross the channel via the bridge in Kanne. After this a short right and then via the left back towards the square and our starting point.

Route walked in 2011.