Leg number 2 – another 23 kilometers (more or less) on a bright, sunny day. We started where we stopped last time: at the Drienerlo raiulway station, next to the FC Twente football stadium. The route has been diverted but signalling was poor – but keeping the same direction – towards the bridge crossing the Twentekanaal – we got back on track.
Passing old footpaths along meadows in the Twekkelo area – where people thrive to keep these old lanes open – to Boekelo. This village is where salt mining started in the 1920’s. You still see the little green barns everywhere, where steam in injected in the slat domes deep underground, and salt water is returned. The Boekelo Tourist Office houses in a black drikking tower.
From there we entered one of the largest estates in the area: Twickels. Every farm that belongs to the estate has black-and-white blinds aside the windows. The estate is famous for it’s nature reservation work. In the midst of the estate is the village of Beckum. From there, we followed one of the paths used by people to go to church – through low-lying woords – and in bad weather conditions, it must have been a hard walk of several kilometers – in muddy conditions.But the weather has been fair the previous week and today – so no mud-walk for us.
Again, the walk has been tracked (in Garmin, general and CSV formats) and a number of pictures have been taken
Category: Tracks
Tracks = Walks, planned and unplanned, that are closer than a day drive, normally one or a few days at a time. The main aim or these walks is, well, walk, and have a look around the corner. Some longer wals could be mentioned “Travels” it they were further away and would last longer, not part-by-part. But the distinction is arbitarty sometimes.
Havezatenpad 1: Oldenzaal-Drienerlo
We started with a 23 kilometer walk from Oldenzaal to Drienerlo. The walk starts at the Oldenzaal Railway sation, passed through the rural area South of Oldenzaal and North of Enschede, traversed over the Technical University campus, to our destination: the Drienerlo railway station (just outside the football station of FC Twente), where we took the train back to Oldenzaal.
Not too bright weather, but nice to walk. Of course I took pictures – and tracked the walk in Garmin, Generic and CSV formats.
Havezatepad – The prologue
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.
Huizen-NaardenVesting and back
The snow has disappeared. We made a 20 kilometer walk nearby, through the patches of nature, squeezed between builded areas – the only remains of a vast landscapoe of heather and woodland, from the small town of Huizen, to the former fotress of Naarden, with it’s fortifications still present. Most of thee have been torn down in Napolean times, but since Naarden was part of the line of fortresses around Amsterdam, it has been restored in the 19th century.
Back along a park that once belonged to the estate of Oud Craailo.
A number of images have been taken, and tracks are available in the usual formats: Garmin, generic and CSV.
Loenermark
A walk from the Toer Actief magazine, the January 2010 edition, near Loenen. It starts from a picknick area near the War Cemetary just outside the village of Loenen – which we visited on our cycletour last year on the Veluwezoom. As it turned out, this route had a few stretches we passed by bike that time.
From the booklet map, I marked waypoints on the GPS map, at locations where the route took another direction and we followed these markings – only at the end, we made a small diversion because I misjudged the right direction….
The day started with frost, womewhat misty, but by the day, the haze lifted and some clearences in the sky appeared, letting the sunshine get through. I didn’t bring a camera, because in my imagination, this should be, again, a route to cover some more kilometers. But as the walk progressed, the area became more and more interesting and the weather more bright, so I used the phone camera to keep some impressions. Given the limitations of the equipment, the images aren;t of best quality – but usable (in my view)
As ususal, the tracks are available in Garmin , exchangable and CSV formats. The first also hold the waypoints (if you compare it with the booklet: the numbers do NOT correspond with the notes!). For those that rely on the CSV-files: the waypoints are available in CSV format as well.
Picking up the routine
Due to winterly weather conditions (and other activities not concerning walking or travelling) there has been no walks after Christmas.
In Februari, it was decided we really needed to pick up out scheme of walking at least 20 kilometers each weekend. We started nearby, with two walks set out by volunteers of walker’s groups: Culemborg and Zeist. We’ve done walsk by both groups before, but some time ago.
Since this was merely picking up the speed again, I didn’t bring a camera so you’ll have to do with maps and tracking data:
Culemborg – Beusichem vice versa in Garmin, general and CSV format
Zeist – Rijsenburg vice versa in Garmin, General and CSV format.
KootwijkerZand by GPS
After two weeks of snow, freeze and thaw – causing iced roads and paths hard to pass – we had a rather short walk in the woods and drfting sands near Kootwijk, using a GPS route I downloaded rather some time ago from the site of the Dutch State Forestry Deparment.
Most roads are free of slippery parts, but the inland road to the parking place was very, very slippery. Soon we found out that some parts of the paths were like icetracks as well. Since half of the route was over the open sands, it was reckoned to be rather easy to pass – and in some rspect, it was. but it was a shallow layer of sand that was frozen, and the layers below were as loose as ever, so the 10 kilometer walk seemed as heavy as a 20 kilometer one.
A few images have been taken to give you an impression of the wideness of the area – and I have published the tracks in Garmin, Generic and CSV formats.
Woods in Winter
Last week a lot of snow has fallen, and temperatures dropped to -16 during the night.
Today, we decided to take a 25 kilometer walk from Putten, set up by a wanderer’s association. It lead us troght the woods to Garderen, where we had a rest in De Bonte Koe, and back; in nice sunny weather, with temperatures well below zero: When we started in Putten, it was -10, and when we arrived after our walk, it was -8.
A tough walk, because the frozen ground was very uneven, and at times slippery; and the dog neede attention once in a while: snow accumulated bwteen it’s toes and formed marbels – hard to walk on, so these had to be removed at times.
But we made the whole walk – and I had time to shoot some images. The walk has been tracked: the data is available in Garmin, general and Excel formats.
De Bilt – HollandscheRading
A walk in an area rather close: 25 kilometers between De Bilt (Near the town of Utrecht) and Hollandsche Rading, on the boundary of the provinces of Utrecht and Noord-Holland. We had walked here before, but that route went East, to Den Dolder. We’ve been at Hollansdsche Rading as well, walking the Western part of the Marskramerpad (from Amersfoort to The Hague), and when following the Utrechtpad we had done some of parts of this walk as well.
But most of today’s walk – in cold, but sunny weather – was new. The walk follows the structure of the landscape: where waterways run SouthWest – NorthEast and meadows are rather narrow but stretch hunderds of meters in length, which is typical for the western part of the province. At Hollandsche Rading, the Noord-Holland area of Gooi, with it’s woods, marks the northern boundary of the low lands; And our way back followed the somewhat higher lands – drier and wooded; being the location of estates and manors – noblemen and riches – , in stead of farms and peasants.
I took some images for an impression, and, as usual, the tracking data is available in Garmin, general and CSV formats.
Groesbeek-Gennep-Vierlingsbeek
There is still a gap within the Southern Pieterpad to cover: We’ve done Vorden to Groesbeek, and Venlo to Sittard, so still had to walk the route between Groesbeek and Venlo. The whole lot means walking more than one day, it’s over 40 kilometers. Today we made a start, spanning two walks – one of 14 and one of 16 – into one day. Starting where we ended in Groesbeek before, we went to Gennep and from there to Vierlingsbeek. Due to it’s length, we paused three times – tha last near the official ending for today, but we still had to do another 1.5 kilometer to the station to head back to where we started, by trains and bus.
Though the day started with some drizzle underway, the sky cleared en route, and with after a cloudy afternoon, the walk finished as it started: under bright skies.
The landscapes are mixed – woodland and meadows, hilly and flat. The area surrounding Groesbeek is relatively high, cut with gullies and so offers non-Dutch panoramas and valleys – something you would expect in the outmost southern realms of Limburg.
Since today’s walk is part of the Pieterpad, it’s information (inclusing the full track) is found on the Pieterpad pages.