Cycling through and around beautiful Ham

This route takes you to the rural and wooded area around Ham, a town in Belgian Limburg. The first few kilometres you ride along the Dessel-Kwaadmechelen canal, one of the seven Kempen canals. It is an ideal path to warm up and clear your head. When you leave the town of Olmen, you will soon arrive in the Gerheserbossen. The history of this forest goes back about 10,000 years. You will mainly see sandy soils and dunes covered with pine forests. If you look closely, you will also discover old remains of heathland and fens. These valuable spots, which are connected by light-filled avenues, ensure that rare animals such as the wood cricket and nightjar feel at home here. The route also takes you through Beringen-Mijn. This district was created at the beginning of the twentieth century around the Beringen coal mine, a mine where about 6,000 people worked in its heyday. The mine closed in 1989, the enormous buildings and slag heaps remained standing and were given a museum or cultural function. On the mine site you will find, among other things, the Flemish Mining Museum, the largest industrial heritage of Flanders and also the largest preserved mine site in Europe. At the Albert Canal you turn off, back towards Ham. The route starts and ends in the municipality of Ham. You will find a number of special monuments here, such as the seventeenth-century rectory of Oostham. The church of Oostham even has the oldest church tower (from the tenth century) in the Benelux. After your beautiful trip you will find plenty of opportunities in Ham for lunch, dinner or just a drink and a fresh Limburg pie. Route 181622 also starts from Ham.