Enjoy the border region

This route takes you through the agricultural border area between the Dutch Zundert and Belgian Wuustwezel. The area is rich in forests and heathland, and during your tour you will also see many ditches and streams. Although Breda and Antwerp are close by, these major cities seem miles away. In this rural area you forget the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a moment, so you automatically shift down a few gears. You drive from Belgium to the Netherlands via the Aa or Weerijs river valley. You drive through Lange Gooren and Krochten, an elongated nature reserve consisting of coniferous forests and swamps. Birds such as the marsh harrier, bluethroat and nightingale breed here. A little later you cycle through the hamlet of Wernhout, which belonged to the Flemish Brecht during the Eighty Years' War. Along quiet roads you arrive at Wallsteijn, a nature reserve that consists of coniferous forest, old oak avenues and agricultural land surrounded by hedgerows. Wallsteijn was created after the excavation of the raised peat. Until the mid-eighteenth century, the peat was transported via flat-bottomed boats over the Turfvaart, a watercourse of about 25 kilometers that runs to Breda. The Turfvaart was dug in the seventeenth century and only served for a century. The Wallsteijn country house, built around 1810 in neoclassical style, is of a later date. You cycle back to Belgium via the hamlet of Achtmaal. Between Wuustwezel and Brecht you drive through the Groot Schietveld, a nature reserve that consists of a contiguous area of dry and moist heath, fens and hay meadows. The Groot Schietveld is 1571 hectares and therefore, after the Kalmthoutse Heide, the largest nature reserve in the province of Antwerp. Plants such as the heather and bog orchid, bell gentian and round sundew still grow there. There are many species of butterflies, such as the gentian blue, and a large viper population. As the name suggests, the Groot Schietveld is partly used as a military training area.