Cycling on water in Flemish Limburg’s mining country

The innovative approach Flemish Limburg has taken towards cycling infrastructure is a wondrous thing to behold. Not content with an extensive and well maintained network of cycle paths, many hundreds of kilometres of which are car free, you can enjoy exciting features like cycling through the water or cycling through the trees (actually cycling in the treetops). Now I’ve discovered it’s possible to cycle on the water as well.

While this gives new meaning to the expression, Christ on a bike, the glorious experience of cycling at water level on a 380 meter-long pontoon bridge in Hoge Kempen National Park is more earthly. Intimately linked to Limburg’s coal mining history, it runs between two terrils, slag heaps that are a result of mining operations directly beneath you in the former Eisden coal mine.

Getting off the bike in the middle of the artificial lake to view your surroundings is truly memorable, the pontoon bridge snaking through the water. A little further on, two mine headframes rear up like industrial dinosaurs, reminders of the region’s mining legacy. Nearby is ‘Coal Castle’, a villa once part of the mining company, now a plush hotel with a formal French garden. Fancy stuff for a mine.

I’d already encountered another bit of Limburg’s history with ‘black gold’ on the outskirts of Genk. The former coal mining site of Waterschei is a pleasantly landscaped area with old mining buildings that are now a science and business centre. Nextdoor is a single mine headframe. I rode through the park, where the slag heaps have been turned into a hiking area, and then cycled into the woods.

The final area of woodland provides a dramatic contrast with the light and space as you cycle on to the water. Heading for the Meuse Valley River Park, or Rivierpark Maasvallei, where the river’s unique ecosystem is being restored, I passed along the Royal Albert Canal and then along a dyke raised above farmland towards the River Maas. Just outside the village of Vucht is a curious memorial to a crashed German military plane.

Here on 10 January 1940, a plane piloted by Major Erich Hoenmanns made an emergency landing. The tense days of the Phoney War became a lot more tense when Belgian border guards discovered the sole passenger in the plane, Major Helmut Reinberger, was carrying German plans for the invasion of France: Fall Gelb. A local farmer was first to the crash. He gave Reinberger matches to light a cigarette. Instead, he tried to burn the plans.

He failed to destroy them, and while the Allies tried to work out if the plans were real or a diversion, the incident was a major headache for German military planners. It’s one reason the invasion of Belgium, The Netherlands and France was amended and delayed. Finally, the Phoney War ended as German forces crashed into the Belgian Ardennes and struck at Sedan in France on 10 May.

Cycling along the river, also the Belgian-Dutch border, I headed to the town of Dilsen. My goal was the Kolenspoor, once a 70 km railway connecting Limburg’s seven coal mines and transporting workers, coal and materials between them. At its peak, the Flemish mining industry employed 46,000 mineworkers and produced over 10 million tonnes of coal per year. It has left a lasting mark on the region.

The Kolenspoor took me to As. Despite not having a coal mine, As holds a special place in Limburg’s mining history. In 1901, André Dumont discovered coal here. Locals opposed ​​a coal mine so the honour of being Limburg’s first mine went to Waterschei. Still, the small railway station here went on to become central to the mining industry. Today, the station building is a nice brasserie and there are railway carriages to explore.

The journey back to Genk was uneventful, but there was the delightful ‘corkscrew’ cycle path in the Molenvijverpark for one last thrill before getting the train back to Brussels.