A land of contrasts, a region of rivers. Almost entirely within the Vesdre basin, the GRP 573 respects an undeniable geographical coherence.
The journey is extremely varied and all the more interesting for it; the elevation changes in particular are not insignificant. As for the rivers, they are ever-present.
Entering the valley of the Vesdre, departing from Chaudfontaine, the route winds between two very distinct regions. On the north bank, the Herve country, a fertile, rural and pleasant region. To the south, the Ardennes terrain, wild and enchanting. Between them, small towns and a few larger ones: Pepinster, Verviers, Limbourg, Eupen.
After Eupen, following the Helle upstream, the GRP ventures into the forested Ardennes before opening out onto the High Fens with their desolate moorlands. It then follows the Hoëgne through the midst of the peat bogs. Heavily forested as far as the Belleheid bridge, the route then heads towards Spa and on to the region of Theux and Banneux where, in a fresh contrast, the landscapes become gentler and more open. The return to Chaudfontaine then recovers a wilder character, along the heights of the Vesdre valley.
A second itinerary, in the form of a variant, with the Hoëgne as its guiding thread, from Belleheid to Pepinster, passing through Polleur and Theux, renews this interplay of successive landscapes and discoveries where watercourses, tourist towns, deep forests and historic monuments alternate one after another.
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