Bree, Seagulls and Opitter

Just across the border with the Netherlands, Belgium has beautiful nature to offer. The bike ride leads you through the beautiful Gruitroderbos. The forest on the Kempisch Plateau is 660 hectares in size and is part of the Duinengordel nature reserve. The dunes in the area were created in the Ice Age, about 10,000 BC. The pine forests were planted in the first half of the twentieth century for wood production; they had to supply mining timber to the coal mines in the area.

Between the coniferous forests are small pieces of the original Gruitroderheide and shifting sand areas. Since 2008, this type of nature has been expanded and an elongated strip of coniferous forest has been cleared to give the heathland and dunes more space. The area is home to rare animals: the damselfly, the fin-footed salamander, the wood cricket, the gray clawweed, the green sandpit beetle, the common blue and the red wood ant have found their home here. Birds of prey skim over the treetops: the presence of buzzard, goshawk and honey buzzard is the rule rather than the exception. You may also come across the smooth snake, which has wandered off the fens in the Dune Belt in search of prey.

The route starts in the historic town of Bree, which has been one of the most important cities of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège since 1366.