Belgium

See the individual crag pages for what we did for Topos.

If climbing at Freyr, I can see that the official guidebook would be essential to get the most out of the extensive area, despite it being only in Dutch and French.

According to the Belgian Alpine Club if you are Belgian or a full-time resident you must be a CAB member to climb at the Belgian crags. For visitor from other countries, membership of a UIAA member federation (e.g. the BMC in the UK) provides a reciprocal basis for insurance. We did not meet anyone who mentioned this when climbing but we kept out BMC membership details accessible just in case.

The Crag – always worth a look for any useful comments, latest logs etc.

I always find the country summaries on Climb Europe helpful – the Belgium page focuses on Freyr but includes a little map of and list of other crags in the area – including many we did not visit, Durnal (which we visited and recommend) but missing the Rochers du Castel (which was polished… but a fun adventure into the forest).

Roads are all in good condition with easy navigation. Lots of windfarms next to the motorway which seems very smart. Bit of traffic around Brussels as you would expect.

Camping

• park4night was (as always) our go-to resource – overall we found convenient free camps that worked well.
• According to the Crag there is a designated tent-camping spot at Freyr for a small fee – it looked like camping vehicles were staying overnight in the parking area too.
• We entered Villatoile Camping for a day visit to swim in the river, it looked like a good option if you need access to camping services.

It is worth noting (also because I still am so surprised) that in Belgium, restaurants will refuse to provide you with tap water and public drinking fountains are not to be found.

• We combined one climbing day with a visit to the pretty city of Dinant, see more detail on the Carrière de Durnal crag page.
• We had a rainy day and did the following:
  • Castle of Veves – the first castle of our Euro trip and impossible to top… a treasure hunt, costumes, sleeping beauty, a dragon’s lair… a castle of dreams from the perspective of a child!
  • Took a dip in the river Lesse, we parked and paid a small fee at Villatoile Camping but there are probably other spots to access the river. We saw people taking kayak trips along the river which looked like fun.
  • Did a little recce of the Freyr climbing area… something to come back to!
• A few other things nearby that I read about, noted down but we did not have time to visit:
  • A walk to view picturesque Castle Waltzin including a river crossing/dip
  • Hotton for another climbing crag, caves and more river dipping
  • Les Fondry des Chiens, a natural sinkhole with biodiversity and nature walking