The Havezatenpad is a long distance path from Oldenzaal to Steenwijk, and it contains a kind of prologue – a two-day walk from Vollenhove to Zwartsluis and back.
In former days, Vollenhove used to be a bishop seat, and the capital of the Dutch Northern Territories, ruled by the bishop of Utrecht. This is still shown in the mansions that still exist in town.
When the daministraion moved to Zwolle, the major business of the town was fishing, which ended in first half of the 20th century, when the former Zuiderzee was dammed and new polders were created.
Zwartsluis used to be the statsion where turf was moved from the Eastern part of Overijssel and Drente to this towen, and moved over to larger vessels to bring the fuel to Amsterdam.
Today, watersports and tourism is the major source of income – for all towns and villages in the area;
Vollenhove lies on a bank of sandy material, high grounds aside an area that was long inaccesable except by boat; Turf was harvested and that causes shallow lakes to form; this area now is a nature reserve, attracting lots of visitors.
The walk is tracked (available in Garmin, general and CSV formats – and images have been taken to show the environment. We had two showers, one leaving Zwartsluis, and one just before re-entering Vollenhove. No pictures have been taken during these showers.