The lovely landscape in Belgian Limburg

This route takes you many kilometres through the beautiful nature of the Limburg Kempen. You cycle through large forests, quiet heathland and lovely stream valleys. You also pass through several friendly villages, such as Ophoven and Opitter. There is always a terrace to be found where you can enjoy a fresh piece of Limburg pie. You start your journey through an agricultural landscape of stream valleys and orchards. Every now and then you cycle past a typical Kempen long-façade farm, a house where the front house, stable and barn are built together and all the doors are placed in the long facades. Some farms have a thatched roof, so it seems as if you are looking back a few centuries in time. Via the valley of the Itterbeek you cycle into the Dune Belt. This varied and extensive heathland, forest and dune landscape is approximately 3000 hectares in size and includes the Solterheide and the Gruiterbos. Centrally located in this area is the Flemish nature reserve Oudsberg, the highest and largest open drifting dune in Flanders. In the Solterheide you will mainly see coniferous forests, but also fields, hedgerows and chestnut avenues. In the adjacent Gruitroderbos you will also mainly cycle through fresh-smelling pine forests, although in some places the original heathland and drifting sand areas have remained intact. The large coniferous forests had to provide wood for the local mining industry during the first half of the twentieth century. The influence of mining can also be seen in the landscape in another way. Southwest of Opglabbeek there are two high peaks, one of which is 165 metres high. They are not hills, but mining spoil tips from the former coal mine of Waterschei. These accumulations consist of the stones that are removed from the mine during the extraction of coal. There seems to be no end to the forests, because you also cycle through the Heiderbos, where, in addition to conifers, many juniper berries grow. With some 7000 bushes, this is the largest remaining juniper population in Flanders. In the Bergerven, just south of Neeroeteren, you drive through a reserve where red bell heather was reintroduced a few years ago to cover the poor soils.