Hiking Trails in Autumn (Butterfly, Dragonfly, Caterpillar, Forest, @Kalmthoutse Heide, Belgium)

Almost a month into autumn and nature looks the same as mid August (caused by heat stress). It has rained just a little, not even enough to create puddles in what used to be fens. In a few weeks I hope to show you another photo with the fen as it is supposed to look like.

I presume park management was already putting up “do not skate” warnings this time of year some thirty years ago.

This morning I decided to combine 4 short trails: Dragonfly trail, Caterpillar trail and Forest trail, plus Butterfly trail completely. Totaling just over 5.5miles

I started my tour at a bike parking next to “Den Doodendraad” (death wire), commemorating WW1.

Dragonfly info sheet (Celtic.Belgae style)

The Dutch “libel”, is from Latin libellula, meaning a certain insect. It is also the diminutive for libella which translate as level (horizontal) and the diminutive of libra, also level or scales (i.e. zodiac). 16th Century biologists named the creature since it looked like their equivalent of a level.
The English ‘libel’ is also from Latin ‘libellus’ meaning something like “little book, pamphlet, written accusation, etc”, the current meaning “false or defamatory statement” is from 1610s, the legal sense is first attested 1630s.

Yes, English is a Germanic language with Nordic/Norman and French (read: Latin) influences. Quite equal to Dutch however the Vikings were not so interested in our swampy heather fields as they were all but ideal for farming. Latin definitely was quite a difficult language.
Dragonflies have been – mainly hovering – on earth for about 300 million years and are quite prevalent in our park they are facing extinction due to climate change, wildfires and drought. Having survived several mass extinctions, a human made one might be their swan song. According to IUCN Red List of threatened species more than 48,600 species are threatened with extinction… Yes, read that again and please. Please do not hesitate to do whatever you can: contribute, educate, organize litter collection parties, etc

Butterfly

At the refurbished visitor center De Vroente, starts another quite unique hiking trail for the visually impaired: Butterfly. In the visitor center you can also borrow simulation glasses and walking sticks.

The whole trail has those logs as guidelines. I hiked the trail earlier this year in Feb. Due to excessive rainfall the trail was barely safe for an able bodied person: I remember ankle deep in mud, slipping and tripping. However the path is generally well maintained. I don’t assume the path is daily maintained though.

Butterfly fact sheet (aye, my style)

In Dutch we call it a “vlinder”. Quick study shows the lowlands had a multitude of dialect names per region. The oldest written source (1397) calls it a “capelle” (like chapel). Derived from Middle Latin “Cappa” (= cape) but got in disuse with the popularity of “vlinder”.

Dutch writer Multatuli also named them “kapel” in 1870. Some dialects even named it ‘summerbird’ (like in Nordic languages) or even ‘owl’ (initially just for moths, what we call night “vlinder”) but also some onomatopoeia variants. The local names rapidly decreased in the last 50 years.

Seems like butterfly is one of those animals that does not have a common name. I mean many regions already had their name for it. I don’t see much overlap;

Albanian – flutura (some Belgian dialects also had the “fl” sound)
Amharic – birrabirro
Anglo Saxon – fifoldara (imagine using this, more poetic word, instead of butterfly)
Arabic – faraasha
Cheyenne – hevavahkema
Farsi – parvaneh
French – papillon
Gaelic (IE) – féileacán
Gaelic (SC) – dearbadan-de
Galician – volvoreta
Italian – farfalla
Rwanda/Burundi/Suaheli – ikinyugunyugu
Aztec – paplotl
Spanish – mariposa
Tiwi – kwarikwaringa
Turkiye – kelebek
Welsh – iâr fach yr haf (literally “little summer hen”)

If you want to see butterfly in 300 languages.

Caterpillar

The English caterpillar comes from French “chatepilose”, literally “shaggy cat”. Funnily, the Swiss Germans call it “devil’s cat”, some refer to a dog and the Portuguese even “lizard”. In Germanic languages a (boring) variant of “rups” is in use. Not dozens of poetic names like the previous.

The Caterpillar Trail is another unique one since it offers physically impaired people the opportunity to (re)discover or relive past experiences or memories in the heather fields. The visitor center provides an electric all-terrain wheelchair if needed.

Forest

Mixed feelings about this one. Forest trail will be very challenging (and fun to hike) in winter and especially after extensive rainfall. Unfortunately the fen Putse Moer was still mainly empty as top photo proofs. Most of the forest is pine and not specifically local. These were planted throughout the region. Not sure if all pine trees were suitable but they were used in mining. Apparently these beams creak big time giving you ample time to flee before the roof collapsed. I assume not many people wonder why these trees are present. Nobody will be surprised the landlord sold the story as “I gift you a forest” and neglected to inform them it is an investment, not so much for amusement.

Dragonfly

At about the Putse Moer, where I took the first picture I connect to the Dragonfly Trail. I already started to wonder if all winged insects are called something -fly in English. It is just a coincidence I combined dragonfly and butterfly trails.