Elzéard Foundation

Leaving our little caravan

   Some backroads were inundated,
very bad to ride a bicycle through

Cycling from the Absthof to Rullen (near Sint-Pieters-Voeren) on the 16th of October was a hard break from the previous days. Being back on the saddle made me both excited for the future and sad again to leave my newfound 'home'. The first few kilometers were cycled in silence and a bit apart, because —realising this later— I needed some time to mourn about leaving the community. But soon the rolling landscape of the Haspengouw, the empty little roads and views on far away forested hilltops made me happy and attentive. This was not the case for Nicolaas. During our last day in the Abtshof, we carried a heavy marble sheet for one of the inhabitants. Nicolaas, who has had back problems for some time, really hurt his back, as we underestimated the weight of the stone. The ride for him was uncomfortable and he didn't share my happy mood. So after a while we decided to put our initial cycling node route into the thrash bin and just use Komoot for the shortest route to our destination. Komoot, for those who don't know, is a German navigation app that uses the detailed openstreetmap data in combination with some very good software to make an easy to read, smart and handy outdoor map system. It has a smart route programming function, that rarely just chooses the shortest road to some place, but always tries to find nice, beautiful, calm or specialised routes to maximize the outdoor experience. Programming it for the bicycle will make it choose more cycle lanes and less busy roads. I also use it constantly to record our routes that end up on the map above this blog.

First steep climbs near the Meuse valley

Anyways, we rerouted the route and used the GPS-voice (instantly named Komina) to guide us through the fine-mazed network of Limburg roads. We collected some walnuts at our teeth-brushing stop and bought a loaf of bread in the same area. Something Nicolaas and I often laugh about is the amount of peanut butter we keep on eating (and also bread, but that's more normal: we're Belgians). We put in on our bread morning and at lunch, and the quantities in our pots dwindle every time at worrying rates. It is very nutritive (lots of proteins) and tasteful, so I don't think somebody can blame us.

We also got into multiple discussions during our ride, one of which became a bit bitter and argumentative. This was not dramatic, nor had it a lasting impact, but we came to a point were Nicolaas did not enjoy the back-and-forth anymore. It tells something about our active stance on certain subjects and readiness to defend our opinions or even critique other ones. I really do appreciate discussing things with Nicolaas, because he really challenges me to think about things differently, without the option for me to say "oh, he just has a different opinion, so be it." At the same time studying history made me that horrible person who always wants to nuance things and pretend that because we live in a post-modern world, all objective knowledge doesn't exist. Sorry folks.

View on the Meuse valley, taken from the same viewpoint

Arrival in Rullen, accompanied
by some afternoon sun

At that point, when killing of the discussion, we reached the borders of the Meuse valley, which gave us a great view on Voeren and the hilltops around Liège. We knew now that the last stretch wouldn't be that far anymore, even though it also meant we would have to climb back out of valley, which would be tough for Nicolaas who was already quite tired. Of course the climb did turn out to be quite brutal, but we pushed through and arrived well at the Elzéard foundation, located in Rullen, near Sint-Pieters-Voeren.

A grassland that is soon to be partly rewilded,
 future corridor on the left side.

There we were hosted by a friend of Nicolaas, Roos, who works for the foundation. I also knew her from the course I had taken last year, were I met my long-haired travel companion. The foundation is an amazing, first of its kind project that focuses on a complete, holistic approach to nature conservation and restoration. Using the concept of green corridors it channels its funds to simply buy the lands that could connect bits of nature (often forested hilltops that are hard to use in agriculture). This results in huge positive impacts, as different fauna and flora are able to migrate, propagate and thus heighten the biodiversity and resilience of Voerens nature. The idea is also to connect two big national parks, that of the Hoge Venen (that is connected to the Eiffel in Germany) and the one of the Hoge Kempen, that can further extend into the Netherlands. It uses a lot of experimental techniques, like removing (phosphate) rich soil to create new poorer soil or thus create special bare stretches of land to encourage migration of some insect species. 

Johan showing us a permanent puddle,
 close to a prehistorical silex workshop,
 some silex rocks lying around
 still show traces of manufacture 

A future project that is very specific, but so interesting will for example be to artificially create slits in the ground that emulate cart tracks, to specifically encourage the propagation of one kind of toad, (the Yellow-bellied toad), who prefers temporary puddles to lay its eggs in. It historically migrated thanks to the economic bloom of the german Hanze cities who used a lot of carts to transport goods in the Medieval Period. Elzéard also firmly believes in creating big permanent puddles generally, a project that is monitored by the University of Leuven. Besides this Elzéard is also determined to use an all-in approach, trying to encompass all of the inhabitants and especially the farmers of the area to work with and within the corridor-system. They are encouraged or contracted to work in specially designed buffer zones, where regenerative and biological agriculture can be practised. I think especially this part is very important as so many times projects are trying to restore nature, without cooperating (and listening) enough with the people that actually live close by it or work in the same natural environment.

Visiting the tree nursery at arrival

Roos's job revolves around the corridors themselves, that will be completely rewilded and bereft from human activity, and is curating the tree nursery that will boost the plantation of forest. They use strict rules for selecting tree species and only collect seeds from trees that are actually growing (or used to be growing) in the area. The project by the way is mostly funded by the philanthropy of its founders, who are, or used to be some rich, but conscientious entrepreneurs. It has some specific goals that are pinned on a specific timeline, and the foundation is to be disbanded when they are met. Then all the funds and properties are to be spread across the actors that are implicated, system that is called a sink-in foundation. At the moment they are in full expansion and offer many mini-projects and opportunities for very different profiles. Currently for example they are looking for a chief of staff and also a PR-expert to create a new website and kickstart the public image via social media.

If I know that much about it, it is because for two days we were in the company of Johan, the foundations leader (if I am permitted to use that word), who kindly took a lot of time to explain all the different aspects of this project. He works very hard, negotiating and networking a lot with specifically the people that live in the area, to get everyone on the same line about the project. Genereally I was awed every time by the courage, determination, wisdom and sincerity employed by everyone at the foundation. Visiting this with Nicolaas was all the more interesting because his expertise made the discussions more detailed and critical. What an honour to have an inside view of this.

We on the contrary took a big part of our time to collect apples from the local orchard,  first to bring it to a big press that would return it as apple juice and secondly to have some nice fruit to conserve throughout the winter. We were permitted to sleep inside the house that is part of the farm where the tree nursery is, so our comfort levels as opposed to bivouacking, were quite high. We luckily had time to read a little bit, but in our free time we talked a lot with Johan. On Friday he took us for a walk around the close-by acquired lands, where he showed all these ideas we talked about in practise. It was really an eye-opener. By Saturday (19th october), we left again, full of ideas and inspired. The plan now is more cycling and less stopping (probably because we know so many people and places in Belgium), which means that our next project could be weeks from here. Our road will lead us through Liege (already passed, but covered in a later post), visiting my godmother in the Ardennes and then finally leaving our little kingdom to the glorious republic of France. We are planning to head to the capital to visit some squats, where we hope to meet interesting people and learn from the hopefully present workshops. I'll try to update the map every day so interested people can watch our progress! Cheers and thanks for reading!

Rightmost photo showing a part of the "insect highway", consisting of the removal of nutrient rich soil.

Wwoofing at the Absthof

Before anything else, check out Nicolaas' blog (somehow it doens't always work on my laptop, but it does on my phone)! It is an independent website, and also a very light file, which makes sustainable blog for not asking too much processing power and also not being dependent from a gigantic polluting corporation like Google (like my blog). I do appreciate blogspot for being free and also relatively handy to work with, but respect to Nicolaas for his little project. It's written in Dutch, in a very nice, associative, right-off-the-bat manner. I think he manages excellently in painting little scenes of our travel with a lot of ease. I have also made a permanent link to it on the right sidebar of this blog.

the Abtshof garden with

the caravan tent in the background.  

I assume that the term 'wwoof' is not generally known, so let me tell you a little bit about it. It stands for WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and it is a platform that enables farmers and interested travellers to find each other. It shares some similarities with Workaway, but here the focus is on volunteering specifically on sustainable farms. Indeed, between the hosts and the so-called wwoofers, no money is exchanged and the central ideas are education, exchanging ideas and participation. Every country has its own platform, where visitors have to pay a yearly fee to become member. For now, Nicolaas and I made a double account on the Belgian Wwoof that costs us 22€ altogether. I think that with our week of staying we completely got our money back in very special memories. We were able to witness how the cooperation works, that is to say with a sociocratic structure based on consent and consensus (even though they are not strict with it to enable more flexibility). I think Abtshof works well because of the special mix of people who are present. They share lots of ideas in common. They seem to fit together like puzzle pieces, with more silent types and more extravert, organisers and followers, all in a open atmosphere. So is it mostly a lucky mix? Every new person has to do a trial period, so the group will automatically select those who fit in the best. So luck is not entirely the main factor. Then I ask myself: can this project be repeated ad infinitum? Probably not, as not everyone could live in this kind of system. But it does seem to be able to be replicated by those who want to! It is an incredible structure. Something that merges past and future, using old ways to organise (micro-)societies to build the ones that will lead us through climate change, to more efficient (in a organic way) worlds and to more inclusive, thoughtful behaviour. It also makes me want to live in one, and that is the amazing thing about wwoofing! We have the honor to be temporarily a little part of it. 

The barn, with the pumpkin harvest

At the same time, we ultimately did witness some of the frictions that I think just have to occur within such a big group (almost 20 people). It was interesting to hear some complaints that were always very respectful and nuanced. At the same time it pointed to the issue that at times when tensions and distrust were high, it can be really exhausting living in a community, having to be careful and constantly aware of interactions. I guess that is not very nice, but for the inhabitants, this negative side of the community life was still largely overshadowed by all the positivity. I think this was a very valuable and nuanced insight.

We also were not the only woofers, also residing there was Théo, a young traveller from Quebec. He was doing an European tour for three months. We needed some time to adapt to each others presence (and Nicolaas had to overcome the French language barrier), but it turned out that Théo's amazing personality was a very good complement to everything else in the Abtshof. Besides that succulent (I find no other word) Quebec accent, I shared with him common interests in literature, music (progressive rock!), outdoor sports and views on the world. We also did enjoy a few beers in the local café on Sunday. It helped a lot to forget about the very bad results from the communal elections in Belgium, where the green parties were largely wiped out, and the rightwing parties won big time in Antwerp and other communities. The conclusion seems to be that the green party is maybe too kind and too constructive, which does not operate well in the often hostile and bitter local politics. (I felt like commenting a little bit about it in my blog, it was not meant as primer to start any political conversations here).

From garden to kitchen, literally

Another nice part was the abundance of food. We ate really well and a lot. The community provided us with free basic food like bread and vegetables (and even peanut butter!). October is the harvest month after all, which meant a lot of greens, like potatoes, carrots, salads, beetroot, beans and some plants that go beyond my botanical knowledge. We cooked every evening with them, especially after Saturday, when the communal working day, where everyone works together on different community tasks, resulted in a big potato and carrots harvest. Good food, definitely!

I was also happy to be here, because Nicolaas's and my main goal was learning. And we have been learning a lot. Thanks to Jakob (the community's wood worker), we have been introduced to some of the basics of woodworking.  One of the units under construction needed to plane some parquet wood, so we started to learn to work with the big planing machine. After that he took the time to learn us some basic wood joints and we practiced on lap joints. While helping in the pantry, we also got the idea of making an extra shelf there to store things like vegetables, jams or other conservation foods. This was the start of our main project at the Absthof: building The Shelf. It sounds simple but it really wasn't an easy process, as we had to start from scratch, taking measurements on an uneven floor, and mimicking (for purely esthethic, yet very firmly established reasons) the hight of the other shelves. We started selecting the right wood, then cutting it in the right lengths, planing it, and then making the already learnt lap joints. This took us more or less four days. On the last day we did a sprint and started to really assemble everything, but with the much-needed help of Jakob, who even learned us to work with the very dangerous, but amazingly effective table saw! The result is not entirely finished, but we were able to leave quite satisfied, assured that it would be of service very soon! It did feel incredible to look at it, knowing that we had conceptualized and then created it. 

At the same time, our services seemed to be much needed. We worked in the units under construction, we helped moving a neighbour out and on Saturday, the collective working day, we helped out both in the garden and caring for the house by oiling the window frames. We stored vegetables by burying them in sand, according to an ancient method. Enumerating all this makes me realise how busy this week was, we were almost constantly out, being busy, cooking, gathering food or talking. And yet, I do not feel exhausted at all! It felt good fitting into the community and being useful. I slept well, but not very long and naturally woke up between 6.30 and 7.30. Having kicked my coffee addiction in August I also felt energised naturally. I did drink a LOT of tea to be honest (just replacing one caffeine source with the other?), but more for the nice warm feeling than for waking up even more. But it meant I did not eat or drink between meals, which felt healthy as well (no idea if it really is). I realise I have used the verb 'feeling' a lot, which makes me realise that my stay at the Absthof made me 'feel well'. Looking back at it, I felt I lived an uncomplicated life, that didn't doubt, but proceeded in just doing.

So thank you Abtshof for this. I'll definitively return.

Our finished shelf, to which Theo also contributed a lot!

We left on 16th October, to Voeren which is the Flemish exclave between Wallonia and the Netherlands. There we were hosted by Roos, a friend of Nicolaas, who is working for the Elzéard foundation, that is busy with buying land to reforest and reconnect nature with rewilded corridors. Super interesting! But that part of our travel will be for another blog post....

Cycling to Abtshof

I've been trying to write a post about our travel to the Abtshof, but life here is so full of activities that I either spend my free time talking with everyone or just relaxing or sleeping. I've been writing this post bit by bit, but I think I'm ready! It was supposed to be written on Wednesday 9 of October, the day we arrived here.

The rainy Abtshof courtyard, our home
 for (probably) one week

My first impression of our three days of cycling together with Nicolaas, was the incredible luck with the weather. We only had rain on our night camping at the border of the Meerdaalwoud (which was ok, because the tent held out!) and the rest of the full days of cycling were dry and pleasant. It was just on the last day to Borlo, that we had rain. It was a very short day, 10 km, as can be seen on the map (for phone users: use the "show internet version" button; I will change the template of the blog to make it more smartphone friendly soon). We have arrived at our new home, called the Abtshof. For now, we plan on staying there for a week. Abtshof is a cooperative housing project, on a beautiful farm in Borlo. It is now inhabited by 15-20 people, from very different ages and with even more diverse occupations. Everyone is shareholder of the cooperative, who is the sole owner of the buildings and the land. The inhabitants try to actively maintain a sense of community (while also having lots of private time) and discuss different things in meetings, or work together on a collective working day.

We are mostly interested in the ongoing renovation project, led by the (still) young Jakob, who is a carpenter from West-Flanders, but sort of the general craftsman of the inhabitants. We hope to help him preparing two housing units. We immediately started out by working on the unit that is still in the demolition phase and stripped a wall of its plaster layer. It was nice work and I felt it earned us a place here. We discussed the coming days and it seems like we could be of much help! What makes us so enthusiastic is that we will clearly learn a lot about renovating and woodworking as well. 

Our sleeping place is also amazing: a folding caravan at the end of the garden. What a luxury compared to our little trekking tent with the week of expected bad weather! In any case, since we left Zellik three days ago, we really enjoyed travelling together. Nicolaas is honest, constructive and a fine conversation partner. We talked about political issues like the role of the West in backing Israel, the illusion of neutral news media and it's huge influence over the public opinion, or simply about his field of study, which is forest maintenance. He has some impressive knowledge! I like the intuitive balance that we seek, with efforts to listen and to share.  Nicolaas is also gifted (as I mentioned before) in enjoying the landscape and nature that we encounter. While traversing the Sonian and Meerdaal forests, we often stopped for checking out mushrooms (what an abundance in autunm!), collecting chest-, beechnuts or herbs.

Nicolaas stopping to check out mushrooms; careful!; the beautiful hilly landscape after the Sonian forest

He cycled and walked barefooted during that part which convinced me to also give my feet a forestal walk. Amazing, 10/10 experience, only having to be careful for the sharp needles of chestnut burs. The feeling of humid leaves and twigs under my feet with the view of this green cathedral of a forest was kind of powerful. I can also really recommend visiting the area between Sonian and Meerdaal, with beautiful hills and far views of forested hills, with surprisingly little inhabited space. 

It might also be the well-picked route of the Cycling Net (Fietsnet), a node-organised network of cycling routes, where the numbers of every node create a route that is simple to follow and well-indicated. We have been using it continuously, which can explain the zigzaginess of our route sometimes. Cycling the next day to Velm, quickly made us leave the beautiful Meerdaalwoud, where I often came as a child. It brought a lot of good memories back. The landscape around Tienen and Landen is often a biodiversity desert, with only sugar beets, grass and cornfields, but the hills and views made up for it and brought enough variation.

It definitely made the garden of the house of Velm seem like a oasis, full of green, wildness and beauty. That evening we also cooked with almost exclusively foraged foods: potatoes from a cleared field, chestnut, herbs from the road and the garden. We also collected some tomatoes and salad from the greenhouse that is also present there. Only a pumpkin we bought from a farm on the first day complemented these gifts from mother nature. What a delicious meal! We were also really impressed by how silent Velm was, the whole place radiated a calmness that especially Nicolaas appreciated. The next morning we enjoyed taking our time for breakfast, accompanied by the curious chickens that came looking through the windows.

I think i've written a pretty good portrait of what happened on those three days. We have been working on the Absthof for another three days now, and I feel so welcomed in the community. We feel useful by all the work that is available, and we eat and sleep well. A more detailed blog post will soon follow...

Departure

The start didn't go that smoothly, as i was underestimating the weight of the bags. (thanks to Malo for the pictures!)

Today I finally left from home. I cycled alone from Antwerp and met up with Nicolaas in Aalst after 60km, where we had lunch at his grandparents place. My mind was dominated by an unreal feeling of leaving home without knowing when I would come back. I was also stressed about forgetting something and the other burdens of the preparation, so I guess that I'm still tired from that. Simply to say, that the first day wasn't immediately a thoughtless ride. I did manage to reallt start enjoying the moment when taking the multiple ferries across the Scheldt river. The landscape and the stillness of the morning were quite inspiring, (as well as the view of my fully packed bike with a proud Belgian Flag on the background, something most flemish-nationalists would despise). In the evening we were hosted by Yannick (a very good friend from my history studies) and his mother, who kindly let us sleep in a spare bedroom. Tomorrow will lead us to Limburg where our first ecological project awaits us.

The last few days were busy with finishing working as a bike courier for a small Antwerp enterprise (de Fietskoeriers), packing and seeing my friends for a last time. I also had to work a little on the bike, like fixing the gear shifting or installing a bottle dynamo. As I said a lot of things were happening and I struggled to find time to even pack the bags! Luckily everything turned out well and I have enough room to carry food and extra water if necessary. I have some cool gear that I will definitely write about, but for now I'm just happy to report that I haven't forgotten anything as far as I can tell.

I uploaded the first route on the map that can be seen on the front page of this blog. People reading this on their phones cannot see it and have to switch to "show internet version" (in dutch: internetversie tonen). The route will consist of a black line with a red tail. The red part will be the most recent leg of the trip. Every segment, which can be clicked on or hoovered over, has the departure and destination point, plus the distance described in its title.

I can also say that I'm in the amazing company of Nicolaas. We have some friends in common, thanks to the ability of Ghent's JNM (youth movement for Nature and Environment) to mostly attract really nice people. We also took part in the same class about Nature and Environmental policy last year. We kept in touch, thanks to overlapping ideas and interests. When Nicolaas reached out to me about my bikepacking plans, we quickly decided to merge our interests and combine visiting projects with travelling by bike. Even though I have to admit that we aren't the oldest of friends, cycling together this afternoon definitely gave me a good feeling about doing this. Nikolaas is for example much more attentive to the surroundings and likes to stop for some fallen chestnuts or nice herbs, whereas I am more focused on the distance and cycling itself. In this way our opposing behaviours brings us to a nice middle ground. This makes me really look forward to the next few days.