The road to 600 credits | Part 2- Bellewaerde, Belgium

Day two of the european weekend away back in July took us to Bellewaerde near the Belgian town of Ypres. This was a new park for my friends, but not for me as I visited for the first time back in 2017.

The day was only a +1 day for me but that didn't bother me as I had really enjoyed my visit to this park before and it was a special +1, one of the few new for 2020 coasters that have opened this year, Wakala.

More about Wakala

Wakala, a Gerstlauer family coaster is the newest ride in the park's Canada section and fits in perfectly alongside Dawson's Duel and other rides in the area. The park has taken care to site the ride amongst existing trees and over creeks so it looks well-landscaped and framed by foliage, despite having just opened! The ride has beautifully decorated trains inspired by beautiful British Columbian indigenous art and the spike is a great photo point. As a whole it's a great spectator ride that is visually impressive to watch, something I always think is a great bonus for a ride because non-riders and passers-by can still be included in the fun and the ride is positively adding to the general park atmosphere and experience!

Onto the ride experience, now obviously this is a family coaster so it's not got crazy intense forces but it has a multitude of thrills, such as the forward and reverse sections, sections over water and twists and turns suitable for the whole family to enjoy. We concluded it's on a par thrill-wise with the park's mexican themed, mostly indoor coatser, Huracan but is a considerably different take on the family coaster experience. It's a great addition to the park's line-up, solidiying the park as a well-rounded family destination with lots to do! I also love that the park and Gerstlauer have taken the time to engineer the ride so that, despite it having a boomerang section, can still run 3 trains!

The park overall

The park is a combine animal and theme park so there are a scattering of animal exhibits around the park as well as rides including an impressive giraffe savannah and a train that goes through both lion and tiger exhibits! The park first opened as a zoo and then branched out into rides as time went on. Other notable rides include the world's only operating Huss Topple Tower, another fab spectator ride and all-round weird ride to ride (if you get the chance make sure you ride this!), an indoor themed family coaster, the world's first boomerang to open (bit of debate over this but it's negligible and was certainly the first in europe), a jungle cruise style ride with real animals, a houdini themed madhouse and Dawson Duel a crazy racing Wiegand bobsled ride that has some serious height to it! The park also has an indoor waterpark that is pretty new, that I've not done but looked interesting from the outside.

I had another great day at Bellewaerde and consider it one of those hidden gem parks that I always recommend to people because it's just such a pleasant and fun day out!

This concluded the little european trip and for those keeping score, the credit count was 571 at the end of this day!