ROBERTVILLE - From the Hotel La Chaumière du Lac we go down the street to the dam.
0.8 km DAM OF ROBERTVILLE
We cross the dam and take a small path on the left side. Before the entrance to a private property, our hiking trail turns left again. Now we follow a narrow path along the lake shore. Some concentration is required here, otherwise you might unintentionally end up in the lake. Our path leads over an inflow of the reservoir; a narrow wooden bridge takes us to the other side. After a few steps we continue right to the next intersection. There we turn 180 degrees left and take the wide forest path. Soon we see the lake again, and after some time also the approximately 130 m long "Haelen Bridge" with its 8 double pillars.
2.9 km PONT DE HAELEN
Slightly above the "Hotel des Bains" we reach the road. After carefully crossing it, we walk a short way towards the bridge. Just before the bridge on the right, our hiking trail returns to the lakeshore. We now follow the narrow shoreline path until we reach a campsite. The path passes the campsite sideways. Slightly above we reach the road. There we first turn left and then after a few meters leave the road again to the left. We return to the lakeshore and follow the path until it ends, where it meets the road again. Here we cross a bridge at the end of the lake.
After crossing the bridge we leave the road again and climb halfway left on a narrow path up the hill. On our right we see the road we just left and the first houses of "Outrewarche".
2.2 km OUTREWARCHE
At a fence we turn sharply right and walk back to the road. We must now cross it and turn onto the farm road directly opposite. Down below we return to the bank of the Warche and now follow the river for quite a stretch.
But once again we have to leave the Warche valley. Our path first leads us along the forest edge upwards and then in a large curve around a meadow area to a wide lane. In front of us we see the embankment of the former Vennbahn railway. We follow the path to the right and come back to the river. Down in the valley, just before the bridge, a shelter offers a welcome opportunity to open our backpack.
After the refreshment, we do not cross the bridge but stay on this side. We continue to follow the Warche upstream towards Weywertz. Just before a tunnel-like railway underpass, which leads to a quarry, we climb right over a narrow path up to the railway embankment. The old embankment is now part of the RAVeL trail and smoothly asphalted. We stay on the RAVeL and cross Mühlenstraße next to a car dealership. We use the asphalted RAVeL cycle and hiking trail for a few hundred meters, then we leave the RAVeL path again. We now follow the path running parallel to the former embankment until we reach the next road.
4 km WEYWERTZ
At the road we turn left and soon return to the valley and cross the Warche. After the bridge, we have to walk a few hundred meters on the road towards Nidrum until our GR56 path turns right through a small wood back into the river valley. For your information: if you continue along the road, you will reach the village of Nidrum after about 700 meters.
We now walk through the Warche valley for a while. Here, from the end of March well into April, the wild daffodils bloom. Where our hiking trail reaches the next road, we turn right in a curve and cross the Warche again below. On the other side, the narrow road rises towards Bütgenbach. In a left curve, shortly before we reach the railway underpass, a path branches off to the right and climbs the old railway embankment. Once at the top, we go left again to then leave the embankment after about 400 meters. Since we are to the left of the embankment, we now have to change to the right side through the small tunnel. In the valley, at the entrance to Bütgenbach, we reach the N467 main road.
3.7 km BUTGENBACH (NORTH)
Here we turn left, cross a parking lot and continue through the arch of the mighty railway bridge into the valley. Shortly after the water treatment plant on the right side of the road, a narrow grassy path branches off the road. We cross the Warche again and now have to climb a (steep) ascent with high wooden steps. Once at the top, we stand in front of the dam of Bütgenbach.
0.8 km BUTGENBACH DAM
Our GR56 crosses the dam to the other side, but that is already the next stage. We now follow the lake shore to the center of the village (1.1 km Hotel du Lac / 1.3 km Hotel Eifelland / 1.8 km Sporthouse).
