Running down the entire coast of Belgium had been on my bucket list for a few years. With the update of the Belgian Coastal path (Great Route, GR) in 2023, an excellent route became available to reach that goal. I left Leuven at 5:34 with the first train in the morning headed to the De Panne, where the GR starts at the railway station. I started here at 8:18. After less than 2k of paved roads one enters the nature reserve “De Westhoek”. Easy running was over and made way for a lot of loose sand, later followed by gravel roads through forested dunes, sandy beaches, but also some paved sections when passing along/going through the cities along the coast. This kept repeating the entire day and made it a nice mixture of nature and ‘city trips’.
The day started off with some sun, later followed by overcast skies and some drizzle, but I did not have to put on my rain coat. Temperatures were mild throughout the day, between 12-15 degrees Celsius.
I had stocked up with food for the day, and had three 15-30 minutes breaks in Nieuwpoort, De Haan and Heist aan Zee to get a coffee, refill my water bottles, visit the toilet, and eat a croque-monsieur (in De Haan only).
I followed the 'normaI' route, which includes taking the ferry at Oostende. I experienced a few difficulties in following the route, because the road markings did not always match the gpx that I had downloaded from the website. Throughout the day I followed the gpx and ignored the markings placed by the road. However, when it got dark I had some difficulties in tracking the gpx in each and every detail, especially in the forest near Knokke; on a few occasions I followed the markings instead. The last section included quite some paved roads, but it was nice that the last kilometers of the GR went along the beach and through loose sand in the dunes. I have to go back here, because when running in the dark I really could not appreciate nature in all its details.
Personally, I think it’s a pity that the Coastal Path ends at the parking of Het Zwin. By extending the route with 3 km, simply going along the border of the national reserve Het Zwin, one reaches the border with the Netherlands. As I had reached the end point at Het Zwin at 20:52 in good spirit, and still had time (but not too much) to get the last train leaving for Leuven, I decided to continue the trip to the border of the Netherlands, thus checking off this adventure from my bucket list. Neither at the parking lot, nor at the border with the Netherlands, public transport is available, at least not in the evening. Hence, from the border I headed back to Belgium, to the train station in Knokke, that I reached at 22:06; still 15 minutes left before the last train of the day (at 22:22) would leave for Leuven.