It is arguably one of the most beautiful parks in Brussels, which you enter through its East gate (the park closes at 7pm, try to arrive to this point before this time). You take a left and start an ascend until you pass the ruined castle to the left, where you take a right turn and run towards an administrative building on the right. You pass the building and a 10 meters before the large stone stature of a human head called ‘Olmec’ (not visible because of the shrubs during the summer months), you turn left and enter the rose garden (it is perfectly fine to feel immense happiness and life satisfaction when crossing the rose garden). You make a semi-circle and leave the garden through the gate on the opposite end, keep right on the footpath. At the junction, you make a sharp left and start descending toward the castle, until you reach a narrow path to the right leading over a wrought-iron bridge. You cross the bridge, take a look at the lake of the castle park, follow the path until you can take a right before reaching the orchard, pass a young girl’s statue (in memory of Kelda Spangenberg, who enjoyed passing time at the Parc) and enter the walled kitchen garden. Here you pass through the pear tree alley and by the pond with goldfish and waterlilies until you leave behind the park through the south gate. (If you arrive at a time, when the park is closed, you take a left at the east-gate, follow the brick-wall for a sharp uphill and join the route again at this point). Take a right, start running uphill, cross the foot tunnel below the railroad and take the first possible right to cross some field between mulberry bushes (fruiting from late July). You leave behind the fields and re-enter the forest following a footpath on the right after crossing a most-of-the-year dry brook menacingly called “Drowned Children” (Verdronken Kinderenbeek/Enfants Noyès). The path will take you a lake, where you keep to the left and soon you will cross a barrier to arrive to the paved Drève Tumuli, one of the major forest roads. You turn to the right, descend a few meters until you reach the lakes and a wooden bridge to your left. Do not cross the bridge but carry on and take the first footpath to your left, keeping close to the lake shore. You continue following the path at the far-end of the lake, under the birch trees. You cross the brook and after crossing two wooden barriers, take the second gravel road to your left (Drève de l’Infante/Infantedreef). In a few hundred meters, after a slight ascent, you will arrive to the Brussels Memorial 22/03 on your right. (A natural clearing in the birch forest on top of this hill where 32 trees had been planted in the memory of the 32 victims of the 2016 terror attacks at the Brussels airport and Maalbeek metro station.) From here, you have a short downhill, then keep to the left and immediately to the right to descend to the brook. You pass a wooden barrier to your left and head back along the brook toward the lake and a picnic area between the pond and Drève Tumuli. Here you turn to the right and start meandering uphill on Drève Tumuli for a few hundred meters until it meets Chemin des Deux Montagnes/Twee Bergenweeg. Keep an eye out on the two Neolithic tumuli (burial mounds at the junction) This is the junction, in a clearing to the right (take note of the two Neolithic burial mounds (“tumuli”) on the clearing to your right just before you turn to left and pass the picnic table on your right. You run straight until you reach again the railway crossing. The road leads between mulberry bushes on both sides. Before the tunnel, you take a left and start your descent on a footpath (Vuylbeek), following a brook (Vuylbeek) connecting and feeding a string of ponds without leaving this path until it comes to an end. (The path will cross both Drève Tumuli and Drève de l’Infante/Infantedreef). The path will join Chemin du Hangar/Hangarweg, here you cross the wooden barrier and take a left until you arrive to Dreve du Haras/Harasdreef, a busy motor road. Without crossing the road, here you take a left, continue descending and re-enter the forest at the first possibility on Drève Saint-Hubert/Sint-Hubertusdreef to the left. You stay on this road until it meets Chemin du Pivert/Groene spechtweg, where you take a slight right and switch roads. Take another right at the first possibility to Drève l’Infante/Infantedreef. You stay on this road for a longer section and it will run parallel with the motor-road (Dreve du Haras/Harasdreef). You are now very close to the finish: you will take a left to Sint Corneliusdreef, which you leave shortly for the first path on your right (Vleressenpad). This path will lead you to Langestaartdreef, where you take a left and enter a descending road leading between the cc. 1m high wall of exposed birch tree-roots. You cross the motorway, follow the path between the two lakes, take a left to Klosterweg and run along the lake shore toward the Groenendaal carpark. You cross the carpark and continue until you arrive back to the starting point, where you must stop the clock and save the GPX file of your run, so that we can add your name to the finishers’ list. Congratulation, you are now finisher of the Fôret Ultra-60km, hope that you have had a good time running/walking it.
Run in the magnificent Foret de Soignes
