In June 22 i made a short trip to Belgium and Luxembourg, there was a heatwave going on and i wanted to get to the Sauer Reservoir (Lux) for a swim, i had been there already some years before and remembered it to be really nice.

When i arrived at the lake i was surprised to find it totally over crowded. It was a saturday, but few years ago it was also a weekend in, just there wasn’t even a tenth of the amount of people there.

Everybody and their mother had their boom box going, it was super annoying. I was really exhausted, been pushing through the heat of the mid day because i thought after all i’d be able to just chill, swim, drink some beers, then later set up camp with a nice view on the lake. I did all that, just the chilling was not as relaxing as i had hoped, because of all he people and noise.

Around midnight i set up my tent, almost everybody had already left and the last boom box was going quiet. Had a perfect spot with a great view, just on the lakes greens, not hidden at all, next morning i’d be right at a spot to jump into the lake. But then around 1:30 the police showed up. Actually some years before they also showed up, but only to see if people held their camp fires in check.

They woke me up and told me i’d have to pack my shit and leave. I was trying to negotiate for a bit and i think if it wasn’t for that one “bad cop”, they would have let me stay, but in the end they said they’ll be back in an hour and if i still was there, i’d be fined. Apparently there were new rules introduced for the lake area since it got too popular and the guests behaviour out of control. I was thinking to just move my tent a bit out of sight, but then decided to completely leave the lake area to not risk anything. First i was looking for a new spot in the forested valley, but all the insects that were storming at me and my lights drove me up the hills to the fields (Picture background). Night active animals were scaring the shit out of me, crossing the path, guess i scared them too, although i had the feeling they were not the cleverest of animals. Eventually i found a neat spot on the very top of the hills, next to picnic table (i used picnic table and bench POI’s in osmand to help me find a good spot in the dark), with hardly any insects and a nice cool breeze.