The writer of the this article is Rishad Saam Mehta, an avid traveler, writer and photographer who writes for the Mumbai Mirror among many other dailies and magazines including international ones.
The aroma came wafting on a stray draft of wind. It told of a rich vanilla and indulgent caramel which combined to create what can very well be described as an agent of salivation. I stopped dead in my tracks much to the displeasure of a pizza delivery girl. She was also on the same track on a scooter and had to stand on her brakes and come to a stop, skidding sideways, to avoid a collision with me. She pulled off her helmet, her mind already forming a rude remark for me, when the same aroma wafted up her nose too. We seemed to have become two hunting dogs testily sniffing the air to locate the source. All around us on this crowded street in Bruges, people were giving in to the same delightful draft. On the corner of the street, the little cafe had just prepared a fresh batch of waffles and put them out on display. It was the fragrant bouquet of those hot Belgian waffles that had brought this busy street to a momentary standstill.
A few months ago, when I was in Brussels, I had the opportunity to drive the new Skoda Yeti for a few days. I’d driven straight to Nijmegen, 200 km away in Netherlands where my friends Peter and Elisabet lived. The forecast over the next few days for Western Europe, which means Belgium and the upper regions of France, was blue skies and summery temperatures. As I had to drive the car around, these two factors combined to form the ideal reason to go camping.
So in went the tents and sleeping bags, food hampers and beer cases, pots and pans and all other camping paraphernalia such as a portable barbecue, a sturdy stove and a refrigerator that could run when plugged into the 12v DC outlet of the car.
Nijmegen is a pretty little Dutch university town located close to the German border, and is not too far from the Belgian border either. We started by heading south on road A2 towards the Belgian Ardennes and a town within it called Houffalize. Belgium is broadly divided into three regions: the Flemish Region, the Brussels Capital Region and the Walloon Region. The latter – also called Walloonia – is where the Belgian Ardennes are.
The beautiful town of Houffalize
The town of Houffalize lies within a national park called Parc Naturel des Duex Ourthes. It covers an area of 75, 998 hectares and is the largest among the nine National Parks of Walloonia. As the Ardennes with its fantastic forests and parks are so ideal for camping, there are plenty of campsites. Some of them are cloistered with motorhomes and tents in close proximity. They feel more like a city block than campsites. If you look around a bit, you’ll be rewarded just as we were when we found one at 8 km on road N860 from Houffalize to La Roche. It was supremely rustic with a large forest area and a grassy knoll by a merrily gurgling stream.
Easier said than done Camping requires a certain amount of enthusiasm and energy. Once out of the car, you need to unpack and put up the tents. That done, we filled up the inflatable mattresses. While sleeping bags are invaluable as space and weight savers, I prefer a mattress and a quilt when I have the luxury of a car as these are more comfortable and not restrictive like sleeping bags.