Cycling through and around the beautiful Ham

This route takes you to the rural and wooded area around Ham, a town in Belgian Limburg. The first kilometers you drive along the Dessel-Kwaadmechelen canal, one of the seven Kempische Kanalen. It is an ideal path to warm up and clear your head. When you leave the town of Olmen, you soon arrive in the Gerheserbossen. The history of this forest goes back about 10,000 years. You mainly see sandy soils and dunes covered with pine forests. If you look closely, you will also discover old remnants of heathland and fen. These valuable places, which are connected by light-filled lanes, make rare animals such as the wood cricket and nightjar feel at home here. The route also takes you through Beringen-Mine. This district was created at the beginning of the twentieth century around the coal mine of Beringen, a mine where about 6000 people worked in its heyday. The mine closed in 1989, the huge buildings and slag heaps remained and were given a museum or cultural function. On the mining site you will find, among other things, the Flemish Mining Museum, the largest industrial heritage site in Flanders and also the largest preserved mining site in Europe. At the Albert Canal you turn 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.