Hidden deep in the Brabant countryside you will find the mini camping site Rust en Ruimte in Mariahout. Visitors enjoy the wide view over the meadows and of course the peace and quiet. A couple from the Utrecht area is sitting in front of the tent with baguettes and two glasses of white wine. “We are staying here because we are going to visit friends in the area, but it is wonderful here.”
Wiegert Wiegebos from Kampen has just set up his tent: “We come from the far north and it is all flat with us, it is really nice to be here. Wiegert is pleased with Brabant and Brabanders: “Just the fun . The people are easy, yet a bit different than with us. Northerners are more distant,” says the retired truck driver.
“It already looks a bit like Belgium here,” he says. He immediately inquires how far it is still to drive to our southern neighbors and whether the petrol is much cheaper there. Like many campers, Wiegert brought the bicycles with him: “I used to be a cyclist, so cycling is familiar to me and you can cycle beautifully here.”
According to Wiegert, you will find like-minded people at a mini campsite: “Those very large recreation factories of ‘Is everybody happy?’I don’t care about that. This morning when I arrived here there were immediately people who wanted to help me, even though they don’t know me at all.”
Wiegert is also a bird watcher and then you are in the right place at the Rust en Ruimte mini campsite: “I have binoculars with me and at night you can even see deer here. “Yes, I think it is very beautiful here.”
“We don’t need campsites with all kinds of activities.”
Brabant appears to be popular with northerners. A little further on, Linda van Gulik has settled down with her husband and two children. The family comes from Hellendoorn in Overijssel, but they love it here: “Camping at the farm, who wouldn’t want that? We don’t need campsites with all kinds of activities. The children can have a great time here: cycling, watching the animals and enjoying themselves from nature.”
Linda finds the landscape different than at home in Salland. “It’s all a bit wider here and you want to see something different.” As far as the mentality is concerned, Linda only sees similarities: “Where we come from, the people are friendly and so are your people from Brabant.”
Linda chose the campsite with a purpose, because the family is visiting an event with steam engines in Nuenen this Whitsun weekend. “That’s what attracts us and that’s how we make it a nice long weekend.”