Arrondissement of Mechelen

This morning we were up and raring to go at 7:30am. I made the coffees and we drank them in bed as usual and then we put the bed away and got dressed. Today was going to be a big day………….We were going on a troll hunt!
We had a short drive of just 10 miles to get to the town of Boom. Here there is huge sports and recreational area covering a massive 20 acres. There are numerous car parks dotted around the outskirts and I had picked one before we left home that I thought was convenient for our search.
The grounds of the recreational area are full of trails for hiking, biking and even climbing. There’s also fenced in football, tennis and hockey pitches and at the Center of it all is a huge amphitheatre where they hold events. The Spartan games was held here recently, that’s the Belgium equivalent of ninja warrior.
We left Wanda in car park 2 and began our troll hunt at 9:45am. The visitors Centre doesn’t open until 10am so we thought we would have to wait to get in but we didn’t even find the visitors Center and as there were already cars here we set off.
We wanted to be early to avoid crowds. It’s a Saturday and we both thought that this place would be full of kids so we both wanted to get photos of everything without Ellie having to rugby tackle any children.
Leaving the car park we headed into the grounds of the recreational area and picked up the first trail and turned right and soon we came to a sign that said “ Welcome to Trollen Bos”. We entered into the woods crossing over a large wooden bridge and within a hundred meters we had found our first troll sitting in a brick building. He was huge and made out of wood and looked amazing and we had him all to ourselves. This was Troll Hannes.
Pictures taken we set off through the woods and came to a huge lake. We started crossing another bridge and as we looked to our right we spotted another Troll on the other side of the lake with a bucket, so we turned around and headed for him.
We clambered through trees and down a short embankment of troll steps and down to the waters edge. Here was our next Troll and his name is Mikil.
More pictures taken we set off back the way we had just come to the bridge and crossed over it onto a boardwalk that led through a very boggy forest and halfway down the boardwalk we found our third Troll just sitting on the edge of the boardwalk chilling out. Again we had him all to ourselves. This was Troll Aruid.
We continued along the boardwalk in the woods for around 500 meters, then climbed some steps and came to a T junction of trails and in front of us was a field. Here we were looking for the 2 biggest trolls but we couldn’t see them. Ellie was looking around everywhere and checking here crappy map she had screen shot yesterday and then I shouted “ There they are!”.
They were right in front of us but so big we had just look passed them.
To our amazement the field was empty and I knew the best way to see these 2 was from the air so I got the drone out and got the pictures.
The size of these two Trolls is unbelievable, so much so that I told Ellie to go and sit on one for scale. I had to keep checking the drone camera because I just couldn’t see her.
The Trolls are Una a Joures.
Pictures taken again we headed for the amphitheater. Hear there were a set of steps made of mosaics and entirely by hand. These are called the Unity steps and from the bottom looking up it looks like 2 people. From the air it looks like an angel. Again we were lucky to have no people and got the pictures we wanted. We didn’t even know it was an angel on the steps until I sent the drone up.
We still had 2 more Trolls to find and the chief of Trolls is at the Troll tower so we turned around and back to the T junction we had just come to and this time we continued straight down it passing the trail we had come down on our left.
Another 500 meters of walking and we spotted the troll tower right at the edge of the woods. It was a magnificent looking structure with sculptures hanging from it towering 3 stories up in the air and just sitting next to it is the chief of Trolls, This is Troll kamiel.
We found a local man here climbing the tower on his own, he was easily my age and told us that every weekend he rides to the shops for little bits but his wife knows he’ll be ages because he always stops and visits the magic troll tower.
We still had one more troll to find so we headed back the exact route we had come walking the 2 miles back through the woods, passing all of the Trolls and saying goodbye until we came to the footbridge at the edge of the woods. Here on our right hand side was a sensory area and a big wooden shoe rack made from the branches of the forest, so we both took our shoes and socks off and put our shoes into one of holes of the rack, rolled our trousers up to our knees and set off.
I should point out at this point that I wasn’t really up for walking through the woods barefoot with 6 year olds but Ellie was desperate to do it so I entertained her.
We walked through sawdust, over round pebbles, through water troughs, over astroturf and on tyres. Then we came to the rungs where we had to monkey walk across or go through squelchy mud. I made it even with my 20kg camera bag on. Ellie put her bags down and just made it across.
Next came the really muddy bit and I decided to walk around this bit but Ellie was in her Element and then she was up to her knees in thick, clay like mud. It was so thick it was sucking her down with every step and she had to use a tree branch to pull herself out. I was pissing myself laughing because now she looked like a hobbit and to top it off the next thing we had to walk through was loose straw.
Walking through the straw and out the other side, Ellie now looked like a cross between a rough Lara Croft and Bilbo Baggins and I could hardly contain myself. Especially when little kids were passing us pointing at her feet.
Finally we got back to our shoes and here there was a water fountain to wash our feet. It took Ellie ages and then we had to sit on the bench and wait for our feet to dry as we hadn’t taken towels.
Moving on from the Shrek experience we crossed over the bridge and turned right back into the woods along another trail and then we finally found our last troll.
Even though the place was now getting busy we still had this troll all to ourselves and got our pictures just before the kids turned up. This was Troll Nora.
We wandered the mile back to Wanda where she had been making plenty of power just sitting there soaking up the sun with her solar panels and then we made Wanda French Brie and ham toasties before heading to our last stop of the day.Read more