The Laak valleys and Tongerlo abbey

Cycling through forests and past historic buildings, wonderful! Welcome to The Green Neteland. In the vicinity of the Grote Nete, mother nature shows its most beautiful side. The river meanders majestically between the meadows, while forests rise above the valley. Here you can relax on a cozy terrace with a heavenly delicious regional beer or a coffee with a regional biscuit. The route leads you through the Laak valleys, a collective name for the nature reserves along the Grote Laak and the Kleine Laak. In Laakdal, these watercourses meander from east to west through the landscape towards Grote Nete. The villages of Veerle, Eindhout and Vorst are situated higher up on or along Diestiangetuigenheuvels. These flat and swampy areas in between consist of different biotopes, but what you see a lot here are the marshes with swamp forests, pools, canals and ponds, of which beautiful examples can be found in Eindhoutbroek, Trichelbroek and De Roost. From your starting point Zammel you soon cross the Grote Nete. On one hand you can see the river, on the other side the fish ponds stretch out. Trichelbroek, which you cycle through a little later, is a marshland where the Kleine Laak flows into the Grote Laak. In this attractive small-scale landscape with farms, meadows, oak forests and avenues, you will find a natural pond hidden between marshes. This pond attracts many water birds, such as cormorants, grebes and various types of ducks. At the edge of the pond is a heron colony, where more than fifty pairs of blue herons breed every year. It is worth getting off here at the Sint-Bavokapel. Early in the Middle Ages, a residential area around a chapel arose here on the watershed between the valley of the Grote Nete and the Laak valleys. The chapel was already a well-known place of pilgrimage in the seventeenth century, where believers came from far and wide to beg for assistance - especially to cure the dreaded whooping cough. Be sure to take a look inside, it is a beautiful building! Further on you cycle on this varied route through the woods of Hertberg, which are part of the former Merode forests. It is named after'mountains\\\' that you find there, witness hills (or iron sandstone hills) from a distant past when the Diestian Sea reached into these parts. In contrast to the sandy Kempen, this area has always been wooded. The oldest map (the Ferraris map from 1775) shows that Hertberg already consisted of forest, especially coniferous forest. Unique in Flanders is the fact that the domain has been continuously wooded since that time. After all, until the second half of the twentieth century, these coniferous forests were of economic importance - they were used as props for coal mines. After much more nature and water, it is time for a good dose of culture: Tongerlo Abbey. Here you can't avoid getting off for a while. When you enter the beautiful courtyard of the abbey, under the late Romanesque and Gothic gatehouse, you immediately get an overview of the most important sights, such as the classicist abbot's house. The former entrance gate of the abbot's house gives access to the abbot's garden with the Da Vinci Museum, where the oldest replica of the mural The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is exhibited. A beautiful place to enjoy this beautiful day!