Tales and adventures of a Belgian lady and her fourteen furry friends
Even if the new year did not start the way many of us thought it would I was still happy to see the last of 2021. It’s been a tough year from beginning to end. The first half of it was marked by a difficult work situation leading to a burnout. The last bit of… Continue reading Restart 2022
A decade is a really long time. Yet when I think back about all that's passed and all that's been done since I left Belgium my departure feels even longer ago. First Sweden. Then Norway, New Zealand, Australia, more Sweden and Norway, Nepal. As I sit and write around the bonfire while darkness engulfs the… Continue reading Ten Years an Expat
It was a late afternoon in the end of July when PJ and I got off the bus in Sulitjelma, packs filled with food for 8 days, eyes on the southern horizon. 2.5 years ago we had stood on almost that same spot, though with a slightly more frightened and desperate look in those eyes.… Continue reading Norge på Langs, Etappe 2: Sulitjelma – Dunderland
For weeks now I have been lying on the sofa daydreaming of trips to make and things to do. I did not have the energy to do much more than spend an hour outside with the dogs, let alone head out into the mountains. But the dreams became sharper and clearer as weeks passed. They… Continue reading Sparks
Photo by Linda Balode Back in the fall of 2017 Helsport came out with the Rago line, their lightest line of sleeping bags yet. At the time I was still using my Cumulus sleeping bag but looking for a replacement as it was worn out after lots of use both on long-distance trails and during… Continue reading Helsport Rago Lady sleeping bag
For the last couple of months I've been making a second home on Hardangervidda, that notorious yet stunning high-mountain plateau that lies between us and the west. In times before, when I roamed the mountains overlooking the fjords during summers, I was never really drawn to the place. It just didn't have the same dramatic… Continue reading Crossroads
A little over a year ago I posted some thoughts on time. Back then PJ and I were both on furlough, the pandemic had only just begun and many of us imaged that 2021 would be very different from 2020. But the reality of things hasn't changed all that much. Also this March we entered… Continue reading The Cancelled Season
Something has been missing this past November. As the evenings turned dark the mountains were black. There was no white. No snow, no powder and no ice. It was freakishly warm for most of the month, with temperatures reaching up to ten degrees even at 700m of altitude. Sometimes the degrees took a dip to… Continue reading Beautiful Powder
Last week the end of autumn started announcing itself. Or at least, the end of the cosy, colourful fall, that beautiful time of the year with yellow leaves and golden sunlight during the still warm days, and frosty crispy mornings after cold nights. In the course of 24 hours about 40cm of snow came down… Continue reading Autumn Rollover
Autumn colours are showing on the leaves of the trees and in the grasses and bushes that cover the slopes surrounding our house. Summer has come and gone in what seems like a flash. Wasn't it the beginning of July just a second ago? Initially I had very low expectations for the summer. Things were… Continue reading Summer Recap
Lost in the Hills 