Belgium 2022-02-13 - Ardennes - Packraft Sûre

Sûre is a lovely river of which one of the upper sections acts as the natural border between Belgium and Luxembourg. Last year, I did a solo packrafting / hiking tour on this river with relatively low water, I am therefore anxious to experience it with a much higher flow.

Evert, Peter, Tom and I put in at the outdoor sports center of Martelange at 10 am on a mid-February Sunday morning. Sun is shining abundantly, however the landscape is frozen, icicles are hanging by the water, and temperature is -3°C. During the course of the day, it should warm up and get to around +5°C.

We paddle through some forest and marshland, pass under a suspended footbridge, and go through the center of Martelange. At the other side of town, the river luckily quickly returns to its natural course.

As of now, the river flows through a beautiful natural environment. We get to see quite herons, kingfishers and wagtails, and signs of beaver activity are omnipresent. The river has a quick succession of fast sections with small rapids and more quiet sections. A lot of fun are the many old, weathered dams, which can all be jumped. With today's flow, jumping these dams is even more fun than usual, and we therefore have a go at them multiple times. There are quite a few fallen trees along the river, but most can be circumvented and we only have to carry around 2 obstacles.

The river first follows the border between Belgium and Luxembourg and then definitively enters Luxembourg. We paddle until the last meadow before the Boulaide watermill, take out and have lunch. After lunch, we hike back to Martelange, partly following the GR15 trail. After 17 km of paddling and 13 km of hiking, we finally arrive back at our car at 6 pm, just before dark.

(Martelange: 6.5 m3/s)