Life is good in my (Brabant) country

Smiles in Brabant

Hot off the press is yet another offspring to the ever-expanding tribe of Guaranteed Irregular: Walking in the Meijerij, as the area between Tilburg, Eindhoven and Den Bosch or Northeast Brabant is referred to. The fifteen walks, ranging from 11 to 18 kilometers, take unpaved roads as much as possible.

It’s only mid-February and so everything is still bare, but it’s already a lot of fun during a walk along the stream De Beerze. Starting from the village of Spoordonk, not far from Oirschot (of which you can still see the high, characteristic church tower in the distance), it goes for a long stretch mainly along this pleasantly meandering stream, with fish ladders and rapids here and there. The route can be shortened halfway through, but don’t do that, because the most beautiful part is at the furthest end of this elongated walk: Kampina nature reserve, a beautiful piece of fens, sand and forest.

No sooner have I set out than a song thrush sits with its chest out loudly producing its crazy sounds (standard three times in a row), which make me burst out laughing spontaneously. A great blue heron sails by with large branches in its beak. It is clear: spring has sprung. The song ‘Life is good in my Brabant country’, to which the book rightly refers to this walk, sings in the background in my head: ‘The forests, the fens, the purple heath’. Pompiedom, walking in Brabant quickly puts a smile on your face that fits perfectly with that cheerful musical ode to this province.

That smile was certainly there at the start of walk two: in the Biezenmortel area, northeast of Tilburg. The start is already in a beautiful place: the location of De Rustende Jager (with local specialty the Brabantse Broeder, a must with coffee) is spectacular, with small meadows lined by many trees on one side and the Loonse and Drunense Dunes. The route will pass through that at the end, but first we dive into the wet grass paths of De Brand, a former peat area.

The book neatly warns against it: it can be quite wet here, so boots or high shoes are recommended. Well, I don’t lose any sleep over a muddy path here and there and that usually works out well on my sneakers, but in this case I should have put on my swimsuit right away. These were no longer puddles but complete bodies of water that I had to cross because the path from the far left to the far right had changed into a kind of pop-up fen. Only by jumping over ditches, then fighting my way through stinging blackberry misery parallel to the hiking trail and jumping back past the forest lake, did I reasonably manage to break down the first four barriers, although I cursed this piece of ‘walking area’ wholeheartedly, because even with boots this was impossible. But look, in the distance the dike glowed on higher ground, from where I would reach the blissfully dry grounds of the Loonse and Drunense Duinen. I did it! I thought. Because just before that dike there is still one flooded part, the worst so far: wide, deep and gigantic long. On the left someone had thrown down some fagots and there was no other option but to try, but of course the moment inevitably came when I heard a crack and felt my shoes fill with icy water. Sop-sop-sop I reached the other side.

Then, thank God, it rose quickly on fine shifting sand hills and I plowed across wide expanses of white sand without seeing another living soul. It was wonderful, and above all beautiful. The description in the book was again very good, and it is to be appreciated that the authors wrote that you will nevertheless get lost here, so it is better to navigate on the GPS until you leave the sandy area again. It went exactly like this. You could download that GPS in advance with a QR code; a system that works well in practice.

All in all a beautiful walk, although the flooded paths were of course a major drawback. That is why the tip (and please mention it in the reprint) is to only walk this route if it has been dry for weeks. But don’t go on a warm, sunny day: then the Loonse and Drunense Duinen are impossible, because they are much hotter. A cool day after a prolonged drought. Then this is a top walk.

Tips by province

The revised edition of Outdoor living, a beautifully executed book with many photos and hard cover, compiled and written by Petra de Hamer, who describes 255 areas in the Netherlands where it is excellent walking. These are all existing walks, including those of Natuurmonumenten, Staatsbosbeheer, Klompenpaden and long-distance walks. In her book emphatically no route descriptions or maps, but purely a summary per province of areas where you can go walking, often both short and longer trips. Both in the text blocks and at the back of the book you will find many references to websites where you can find more information and possibly ready-made tours.

I choose something I’ve never been to: Botshol, right below Amsterdam, not far from that crazy blue round hotel on the A2. Natuurmonumenten has set out two routes here: one of 10 kilometers through the entire area (but only accessible outside the breeding season) and a modest circuit of 2.5 kilometers that can be walked all year round. Given the weather conditions, I opt for the short variant; this leads around a pool where many species of ducks float, including a group of ten Bewick’s Swans, a lot rarer than the well-known Mute Swans. During this walk it is just too early in the year for the meadow birds, but in the meadows on the outside of this round it must be dying of lapwings, oystercatchers, godwits and redshanks in the spring, which the information board of Natuurmonumenten also states . A reason to come back here again. Too bad it’s very muddy in many places; with every step I’m afraid of slipping (and glad I didn’t choose the long route). It is smarter to go here when it has been dry for a while.

The second walk is in Lage Vuursche, or actually there are two that you can tie together, both of Staatsbosbeheer: first the white posts (3.1 kilometers) through forestry De Vuursche, which turns out to be a beautiful area full of variety: from heaths with views to spruce trees and whole stretches of oak and beech trees – a forest as a forest should be. Once back at the starting point, you can of course immediately take a look at the red posts of the Kasteeltuinroute (2.2 km), which partly runs along the fence of Drakensteyn Castle and shows even more beautiful pieces of forest.

The earlier white route leads by the way not around Drakensteyn, as the Staatsbosbeheer site states, and even the red only passes through one side of the whole. Those who actually want to walk around it must deviate from the red route halfway and take a somewhat larger loop. You will also pass the tranquil cemetery where Prince Johan-Friso is buried, adjacent to the forest belonging to the residence of his mother, Princess Beatrix. The blackbirds, tits and robins singing from the high trees provide a suitable choir in this genuinely moving setting.

The smoothly written book covers a large part of the Netherlands, but not all hiking spots. So it is strange that the beautiful round of Marken, just to name a few, is completely missing. The Huis ter Heide nature reserve just above Tilburg and the estates around Almen with the extremely special Kienveen in the Velhorst estate will also be included. Outdoor living not for. On the other hand, there is enough inspiration for all those other unknown areas where you urgently need to go to discover it on foot.

Insanely beautiful

Zutphen is a beautiful town and the surroundings of Zutphen a true picture. Titled a booklet Walking around Zutphen is therefore soon on top of the pile of desirable books that must be put into practice. It offers 16 circular walks with something for everyone in terms of length: from 3.4 to 19.7 kilometres.

We start in Zutphen itself, the only city walk in the booklet. The map looks rather clumsy, as if someone has been drawing on a photo of a map with a thick marker, but once walking with the booklet in hand, we won’t mope about it, because what a beautiful walk this is! Thanks to the city itself, of course (you have to come from a good family to get one here not-beautiful walk), but the feeling of happiness also lies in the exceptionally clear route instructions plus the clear, clearly separated from the route section with supporting colour, explanatory texts for all the special things through which the book sends your winding snake. Going wrong is impossible. It goes from courtyards to churches to a viewpoint (with cannon) over the IJssel: those who are tired of life walk this round and they can take it again for a while, you get to process so many visually pleasant stimuli in this barely 4 kilometers.

No city for walk two, but pure nature: a walk of more than 14 kilometers in the vicinity of Almen. It just took me a while to find it on Google Maps: the map in the book indicated a completely different place. Hu? Then the penny dropped: the card was rotated a quarter of a turn in the booklet, after all it had to fit on the page and that was only possible horizontally; nothing wrong with that, were it not for the place names and other designations not were tilted. Then try to get out of it, what a clumsy hassle! This problem appeared to be the case with all tilted cards. But hey, on the road! To be on the safe side, I wanted to download the GPS track beforehand, but that link on the Anoda site doesn’t seem to work, neither on the iPhone nor on the laptop.

So the book itself had to do it. That turned out to be no problem at all, because the walk was very precisely described. Only a few times did I stop for a moment because I was in doubt, usually because of a side path that I had to ignore but that was not mentioned, but still: strictly follow the directions and it is almost impossible to miss. Fortunately, so you could especially enjoy the surroundings. Because what a beautiful trip this was. It felt like I had discovered a secret place; how was it possible that I was walking here all alone, on a sunny February day during spring break, of all things? It was insanely beautiful here.

From the church in the village of Almen, the journey immediately plunged into nature: via tree-rich estates and small-scale meadows where organic farmers do their work in harmony with nature, it goes to the forest, where not only a black woodpecker skims past, but suddenly also – walking on a narrow boardwalk – a beautiful open area unfolds complete with juniper berries, as if you were walking on the Sallandse Heuvelrug. To then walk again through beech and oak infested areas, plus a breathtaking avenue of huge Douglas firs. After an idyllic stretch along the banks of the river Berkel, you return to this extremely privileged village.

Normally this booklet would have received the full 5 balls, but with the strange layout of the cards plus the non-working GPS tracks, there were too many obstacles for that. Can you imagine how fantastic the walks themselves are – and that makes this booklet highly recommended.

Also read this review of three recent hiking books: Dogs, hip catering and a wonderful idyll