From Hardenberg to the Engbertsdijksvenen

Cycle along the beautiful Engbertsdijksvenen, a nature reserve with an area of approximately 1,000 hectares. The extensive peat bogs with fens and heath vegetation are the remains of a much larger peat bog that used to cover the northeast of the Netherlands.

Overijssel Vechtdal
The beginning of the route leads you through the beautiful Vechtdal in Overijssel. Then you continue to the Engbertsdijksvenen. This is one of the few nature reserves where you can still find active raised bogs. There are considerable differences in height, with the high sandy parts being called'hairs\\\'. Some of these peaks are covered with forests. Until the nineteenth century, people used this peat area only to graze sheep, to extract peat for their own use and to grow buckwheat.

Veenmuseum Westerhaar
Visit Veenmuseum Westerhaar along the way: an open-air museum with peat huts, an old typical Vriezenveen farm and a nineteenth-century shop annex taproom. You can let yourself be driven around the grounds in an original peat train. At the end of the route you cycle through Hardenberg forestry in the Vechtdal, with beautiful views of the heath. Back at your starting point, McDonald\\\'s Restaurant Hardenberg, you can enjoy something to eat or drink. Or how about an ice cream?