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.
Tag: Veluwe
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.
Ugchelen
A group from Utrecht, named DES, organizes walks in this area (just South of Apeldoorn) every year, in several distances: 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 kilometers. Actually, most of the routes are along the same paths, tracks and roads, and extra loops would increase the distance, and shortcuts shorten your walk.
Since this was one of two closest to home today, and one we hadn’t done for some time, we decided to take the 20-km route, starting and ending in the gym in the village of Ugchelen, but we encountered some parkins en route, so you could start anywhere along the way. I didn’t see a pub on the route, the organization had a temporary rest at Caesarea, a building of the Salvation Army, at 6, and 16 kilometers.
These walks are forest walks, in different types of woodland, and with sunny intervals, the autumn colours were very brighht and the walk was nicer than expected. I didn’t bring a camera so you’ll have to do with the track-projections on Garmin’s TopoNL maps and GoogleEarth – on which I also show where the extra loops for 15 and 30 kilometers are located – that is: where I think these are.
Tracking data is, as ususal, available in Garmin, generic and CSV fomats.
Dieren-Brummen
The Dutch railways have set up walking routes from one railway station to the other – and this one can be walked by description, map – and GPS data. So I downloaded the GPX file: both route and waypoints into Mapsource, and loaded it all, inclusing surrounding maps, into my GPS unit.
The walk leads into the Veluwezoom National Park, then with a large bend back to the railroad. It follows three long-distance footpaths: The Veluwe Zwerfpad, Maarten van Rossum pad and Trekvogelpad. Most is through woods – but the environment can be quite different: Open woods of beeches on the high grounds; dense, dark patches of pine and fir; open at other places; or patches of woodland between meadows and acres. This can be seen in the images I took.
Of course, the walk has also been tracked, and can be downloaded in Garmin, general and CSV formats.
The original description and map, as well as the GPS data can be downloaded from this web page.
Nunspeet
Today we made a walk around Nunspeet; the cost was rather high but it included refreshment and a contribution to the maintenance and restauration fund of the mill named “De Duif”. Of course, the walk started and ended at this mill.
The walk first followed the boards of the Veluwemeer – one of the lakes that remained from the old Zuiderzee once the Flevopolder was created: Low, wide open rural area, with some farms but otherwise all meadow and other agricultural grounds. Once in the village of Doornspijk, crossing the main road, the landscape gets more wooded and offers small-scale panorama. Quite different. About halfway, we had a rest at a volunteer’s house – otherwise, you would have to take your rest in Doornspijk. However, on Sunday, you’ll have to do without. This is a very religious area, and Sunday menas “no business”.
Just a few images have been taken, but the walk has been tracked – available in Garmin, general and comma-separated formats.
Dancing trees and artwork
In one of the magazines I’m subscribed to, there was this walk in the largest beech forest in the Netherland, between the hamlet of Drie and Garderen – in the midst of the Veluwe. The biggest of them being a beacon for sailors for ages, the largest, straightest trees have been cut for their wood and the curly ones survived. In earlier days, when traveling through these forests, these seemed to dance in the little light spread by torch and lantern, and the shadows that were the result of movements. That’s what caused the folklore names: “The Forest of the Dancing Trees”.
Within the forest there are quarters with different trees: oak, fir, pine and lork, each with their own character, which gives the walk some relieve form monotony.
Along the road images have been carved in the trunks of cut-off trees, of animals that are the silent but busy workers in the forest – any forest – to digest fallen leaves and other material to become nutrient for the trees.
Another walk from the same starting location headed North, again mainly by woodland, to the heather fields, usually used by military for training driver skills in rough terrain, but clear from vehicals during the weekends.
This time I took my little camera – and here is the result of both walks.
I translated the walk into waypoints to be loaded into my Garmin GPS, as well tracked our walks. The waypoints can be downloaded in Garmin,GPX and CSV format. If you prefer to follwo our steps, download the tracks in Garmin, general GPS or CSV format
Lunteren – Overwoud
Another two walks, set up by Tourist Offices in the area: Lunteren and Overwoud. These are two loops that share about 300 meters we didn’t do. We simply crossed the street after having coffee at “‘t Hek”.
The route crosses mainly the rural area of the ‘Gelders Vallei’, the low area between the high grounds of the Veluwe in the East, and the Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the West. It traverses the outskirts of the veluwe just before Lunteren.
This area is famous (for better of for worse) for the vast amount of pig-farms. A large amount of these farmers had thier livestock killed preventively on the pig’s pest outbreak a few years ago. Still, there are a lot of large pig farms, some even expand.
Some images are presented, as well as the track in Garmin, GXP and CSV format.
(The track has been published in the booklet “Boerenvalleiroutes – Wandelen in de Gelderse Vallei”, by Veluws Bureau voor Toerisme, RGV/A+T Veluwe, 1999. This booklet holds some background information of the area as well)