The pin for William, it is deserved and on its way
Author: Harry Lindelauf
Photography: Philip Driessen
He will be one of the first: William Coenen has already completed the long-distance walk of the Via Belgica. The well-earned pin is on its way and will get a place on his backpack among numerous other walking badges.
Tanned and in shape, William Coenen may describe himself with conviction. That is a world of 25 kilos difference compared to the William of ten years ago. In a period of four or five months, he walked himself towards a new mental and physical health. “The psychologist said: ‘walking is good for you’,” William recalls. Not a word of that was a lie, thanks to William’s own effort. Sitting on the couch and snacking he abruptly turned into moving and eating healthily. “The beginning was not easy. But when I start something, I persevere. I do not give up,” says William.
Volunteer work
The reborn William finds relaxation in photography and, as a volunteer, guides young people in difficulty at Perron045, and he would also like to volunteer again at his favourite football club Fortuna Sittard. But it is all about walking from Heerlen. He really walks a lot (5,000 km last year) and does about 40 kilometres per day without a single cent’s worth of pain. If the landscape is flat, William’s average is around 6.5 kilometres per hour. That works, for example, in the north of the Netherlands on the Elfstedenpad. The average is of course lower when he walks the Dutch Mountain Trail, the more than 100-kilometre-long up-and-down hike straight through the Limburg hill country.
The Via Belgica once more
William is constantly looking for new walks and at the first news about the long-distance walk of the Via Belgica he was already on his way. And he looks back with satisfaction: “Everything was marked super well and the information about the Romans on the signs is interesting. Special too to walk where the Romans presumably also walked.” William has therefore already completed the route between Maastricht and Rimburg – and earned the pin – but he is happy to take on the challenge again:
“I can switch off wonderfully while walking and the hilly terrain in South Limburg offers me variety.”—
