Walking route between Fountain and Staak Beringen

Get to know the Vallei van de Zwarte Beek nature reserve, an excellent hiking area around the Flemish Koersel. With an area of 1500 hectares, this valley is one of the largest nature reserves in Flanders. The Zwarte Beek, the Winterbeek and the Oude Beek flow in this area. There are rare birds such as the black woodpecker, woodlark, snipe and bluethroat. You walk through an area with numerous transitional situations between forest, heath, peat and grasslands. Due to the former small-scale use of the stream valley, you can still see wooded edges, peat pits and small pools here and there. Occasionally the landscape slopes, after all you are walking on the western edge of the Kempens Plateau. While walking you will pass visitor center De Watersnip. Feel free to step in if you want to know more about the stream valley landscape of the Zwarte Beek. The path can be very wet at times, so make sure you have good walking shoes. The route also briefly leads you through Koersel and Heusden, two characteristic villages in the former mining region of Belgian Limburg. While walking you occasionally see a rise in the landscape in the distance. It is not a hill, but the 85 meter high slag heap of Heusden-Zolder. On the Koerselse Heide you walk past the Chapel of Our Lady on the Staak, a place of pilgrimage. According to tradition, in 1826 a man got lost in this nature reserve. Since he had nothing to drink and was about to die, he invoked Saint Mary. And behold, a spring of healing water sprang up. Out of gratitude, the man placed a stake with a statue of the Virgin Mary. A chapel was also built, the choir of which dates from 1833. The spring still exists, although the water now comes from a tap.