Burreken

If there is one place where the Flemish Ardennes live up to their name, it is the Burreken. Brooks have cut deep into the hills here, leaving narrow valleys with sides of 20 percent and more. From the lowest points at around 50 metres you climb to the central ridge at about 116 metres. Your 2CV takes it easy, and just as well: you see more that way.

The landscape is just as it should be in the Flemish Ardennes: a patchwork of fields, woods and grassland, lined with rows of trees and hedgerows. If you fancy stretching your legs, follow the signposted Eikelmuisroute or Vuursalamanderroute, which lead you round every corner of the area. There is even a bramble garden with every local variety of the species.

The residents are every bit as special. The emblem of the Flemish Ardennes, the yellow-and-black fire salamander, lays its larvae in the spring-fed brooks. Golden-ringed dragonflies fly around the water, and butterflies such as the brown hairstreak, the orange tip and the map butterfly in the grassland. In the woods you hear great and lesser spotted woodpeckers, green woodpecker, hawfinch, yellowhammer, nuthatch, treecreeper and marsh tit, while buzzard, sparrowhawk, tawny owl, long-eared owl and little owl keep watch. Roe deer, fox, weasel, hedgehog and polecat live here too, though they are harder to spot.

Thanks to the mix of sandy loam, loam and clay and the many springs, all sorts of things grow here. Come in spring: wood anemone, bluebell, wild garlic and oxlip then colour the woods of the Burreken. Park your little goat at the edge and walk into the silence for a while.