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Le Trou des Fées (Fairy Cave), nearby Virton in
the South of Belgium |
A few times already Belgian postcards are mentioned in SpStColl. Begin
this year a catalogue was issued which I studied, very well, and a list
of the Cave of Han and Cave of Rochefort cards made up. However the
cards are not depicted so it's always possible to miss one – which I
did.
Recently the German Geologie magazine of Johan van Soeren showed a
different one, this time an (to me) unknown cave, le Trou des Fées.
This card was issued between 1934 and 1939, in the colors reddish brown
or bronze green, with a face value of 25+25 and 50+25 c.
Five overprinted versions exist:35 c in red and blue, 35 red, and 40
c in red and blue. Availability: very, very difficult.
Since I live close to Belgium and had never heard about this cave I
wondered how
it looked. Since none of my Belgian cave-atlases mentioned
this cave I decided to
go to Virton and ask the tourist information
office. The question of the 'le trou' was very deep (trou= pothole=?) was
answered: no, it should be possible to visit the cave without any
equipment.
Fairy Cave (Cave of the Fairies) is 6,5 km north of the little town Virton in
the South of Belgium.
With a little map from the tourist office the cave
was easy to find after a short
walk through the woods. I wondered
what kind of cave to find since all there is
was sandstone.
Suddenly a
little hill, and yes, some holes in it! But to call this a cave one has
to
be brave - the whole thing is not bigger than a - rabbit burrow. Same
passages
are a little bit enlarged (probably by playing kids) and you
can crawl through them with lots of sand in your shoes and hair.
Total duration of the explorations: five minutes. Total length around 20
meters.
Max. height: same 90 cm. |
