Cycling tour through the Oisterwijkse Bossen and Fens

The Boscafe
The first stop on the route is Het Boscafé, which is located in the middle of the Kampinase Heide. Get off your bike here and sit in the café for a tasty snack and a cup of coffee. Then you can hit the road again with new energy. You cycle about twenty kilometers through the quiet Oisterwijkse Bossen and Fens before you arrive at the next drop-off point: the Spoordonkse Watermolen from 1453 and then the Mill of Himbergen from 1884.

Baest estate
The private Baest estate is located between Spoordonk and Middelbeers. The two rivers, the Grote Beerze and the Kleine Beerze, flow through this area, creating a nice alternation between dry and moist parts in this area with associated flora and fauna. On the estate you will find the mansion Huis te Baest, which was built in the sixteenth century. Just outside the estate you pass the Chapel of the Sacred Oak. The current chapel was built in 1854 on the foundations of the old chapel.

The legend of the Sacred Oak
The story goes that a statue of Mary was found on the banks of the Beerze at the beginning of the fifteenth century. A religious zealot placed this statue in an oak tree. The statue was later placed in a church but it miraculously found its way back to the oak. It was then decided to leave the statue there. Several people who came to venerate the statue at this place were cured of their fevers. Since then it has become a place of pilgrimage.
In the chapel, which has a stepped gable and four columns from the Oirschotse St. Peter's Church, there is a Baroque altar with a relief of the Holy Oak.