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What takes Minna down? What gets her to sit down at her computer and tell the Wide World Web of her latest trail adventure? Well, certainly, as long as I can bike, that will always be my first priority …

Some spilt water on a linoleum kitchen floor can, however, prove treacherous. I ended up spending the afternoon at hospital for x-rays, to rule out broken bones. Lucky: with a bad sprain, I took on the challenge of handling crutches … at 30-degree sun. I am confident you all envy me.

Convalesceing a couple of days at home, having had to cancel my planned trail exploring in Holland this weekend, let me tell you about last Sunday’s riding in Herentals.

Located in the province of Antwerp, Herentals trail stretches in eastern direction, offering three official starting points: Herentals itself (starting with red loop), Lichtaart (in the middle of green and blue loop) and Kasterlee (starting
with the blue loop).

I arrived in Lichtaart, at camping Floreal Kempen. Starting out on the green loop in the late morning, the sun was already scorching.

This is singletrack heaven! The green loop is fantastic fun with lots of ups and downs, and left and right, and semicircles, and sand (keep that front wheel light!). Amazing what excellent trails can be squeezed into small sections of forest. If these trails are man-made then the effort done is humongous! Only Lasne has so far touched me til tears in this country. And now Herentals green loop.

In the west, green loop offers a connection with the red loop (and with trails of Lille-Beerse). Here, there was a pretty long stretch on low-traffic tarmac (past De Brink), before we did a tricky 45-degree turn up a rooty section with steps. Enjoyable trails followed. We stopped for ice-cream: in what seemed in the middle of nowhere, there was some kind of outdoor centre.

Getting close to the starting point in Herentals, signs got confusing. This loop has a short and a long variant, both waymarked with the same, red signs. Plaatselijk means local. Kleine tour means short loop. Grote tour means long loop. The official map also shows a dotted loop of 7 km, and my Dutch is not good enough to decipher what it implies: an extension being built? Yes, we got lost not understanding the signs properly, yet I would not have wanted to miss out on the riding we did following the local arrows.

How do I best describe how to ride this? Well, tell you this, signage is pretty much impeccable until you get close to the Herentals starting point. Then suddenly you have signs showing both straight on, and to the left. If you go straight on, you will hit the parking of the official starting point. But, if you are up to some more fantastic riding, go to the left! This will eventually take you to the top of the 45-degree rooty section mentioned earlier. Don’t follow the sign to the left here, unless of course you want to do the loop all over. Instead, go down the tricky section, and follow the tarmac to your right. When you hit the railroad crossing you have two options: If you want to go to the Herentals parking, ride the trail in the “wrong” direction (yes, as this is in the village, you will have traffic both ways); up on your right, and then the first singletrack section on your left. If you want to continue, as we did, to hook up again with the green loop: Cross the railroad and pick up the sign for the long loop from there. What follows here is pretty boring: slow climbing on low-traffic tarmac, then wide gravel roads … but don’t lose focus! Pay attention, an inconspicuous singletrack section will appear on your right-hand side: the sign is slightly covered by vegetation.

The above-30-degree-Celsius heat felt even hotter out on open fields and when riding (and sometimes getting stuck) in immense sandpits. Sweating profusely, impossible to stay hydrated, having done close to 35 km already in nailing down the confusion around the red trail, we stayed off the blue loop and instead sat down for drinks at Floreal Kempen. We talked and talked, and talked. I didn’t arrive back home with my car until 9ish in the evening. What a day!

I will most definitely go back to ride this trail!

PS. Gps file downloaded from www.mtbroutes.be did not correspond fully on several occasions.

PS2. A couple of photos here.

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