This is a 7 km hike which leads you from the village of Holtz to the frontier between the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of Belgium and back to Holtz again.
The best part of the hike is on easy walking paths, but several hundred meters will take you “off road” and you will even have to pass a brook! The soil around the marks is always rather moist, so be prepared!
Before starting, you have to do some homework: using any tool of your own choice you must determine the coordinates of the following border-marks: LB147, LB148 and LB149. While walking on the cache hike, you must visit these marks to gather the informations that are necessary to calculate the final coordinates.
Informations about the marks (but not the coodinates) which indicate this (sometimes curious) borderline may be found in the following publication:
“Jos Goergen, Bornes frontières – Grenzmaarken entre la Belgique et le Grand-Duché de Luxembourg.”
Lets’ go!
- Parking area is 49°48.400 005°47.400
- WP1, the water tower: search for the Blitzschutz and find a name on an iron plate on the tarmac. The sum of
char values gives you A.
- WP2, météo: 49°48. (9xA)+8 005°47.(24xA). Add all the digits of the phone
number. This gives you B.
- WP3, the dots: 49°47.(23xB)-11 005°47.(9,5xB). How many violet dots can
you see here? This gives you C.
- WP4, the rungs:49°47.(14xAxC)-B 005°47.(3xBxC)+43. How many wooden rungs to
the top? This gives you D.
- WP5, LB147: How many different colours are painted on LB147? This gives you
E.
- WP6, LB148: Two parts of the mark show some damage, where can you see
the big hole? At the fir-cone top: F=8. At the medium part: F=9, at the
base: F=10.
- WP7, LB149: How many holes can you count? This gives you G.
The shooters stood in (approx.)eastern direction: H=6
The shooters stood in (approx.)western direction: H=5
- You retrace your steps out of the meadow and go azimuth to the reference
point 49°47.D (C+1) D 005°46.(G+4) (H+3) (E+2). Then you continue
on the easy path to reach the following WP.
- WP8, the tree: 49°47.FB 005°46.D (2xB): What is the circumference in cms of
this tree at the height shown in the picture? The first digit gives you I.
- WP9 , IVV: 49°48.(A+1) F 005°46.FG(C+I+G): How many colours do you see
on the IVV plate? (don’t count the white) This gives you J.
- WP10, the camping: 49°48.H(I+J+1)1 005°47.0(A+J): How many plates do you
see on all three poles placed in the hedge? This gives you K.
- The final is located at 49°48.((A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J+K)xK)-(D+G+H+I+J+K)
005°47.(A+E+H+K)xK
Happy hunting!