The municipality of Westervoort is located in the province of Limburg.

Mobility scooter suitable!

Five thousand hectares of nature reserve stretch around Rheden, Arnhem and Rozendaal. It is therefore no wonder that the hilly area of the Veluwezoom National Park is diverse: forest, heathland and some sand drifts offer a varied range of flora and fauna. Heather, common bell heather, gorse and broom are common on the heathlands and in the old forests, bracken grows between the summer oaks and birches, but you will also find the blueberry or the foxberry. If the trees are on richer loose soils, you will also see beeches, oaks, Norway spruces, larches and sweet chestnut trees rising high into the sky. Sometimes these giants are forty metres high!

Starting point is the parking lot at the sports fields of Westervoort. Via the Lathumsedijk in an easterly direction, cross the IJssel at junction 90. A good bit further you will pass Kasteel Biljoen. This is a moated castle made of brick that was easy to defend. The castle was built around 1530 and was originally the residence of the Duke of Gelre. Due to financial problems, he sold the castle to the steward. The castle has always been privately inhabited and now has a beautiful landscape park that is freely accessible.

Then towards the centre of Velp, via the Hoofdstraat and Arnhemsestraatweg towards Arnhem Noord. At junction 48 you cycle in an easterly direction to Rosendael Castle. The gigantic medieval keep with walls four metres thick is the visible part of the castle. During research in 1985, wall remains were even found in the castle pond, which indicates that the complex must have been even larger in its heyday. An eighteenth-century residential complex was added to the tower. The country house and gardens are partly freely accessible to the public.

Through the Veluwezoom towards the beautiful old sheepfold of Rheden. Today, the sheepfold no longer functions as a manure production company, apart from keeping the grasses on the heath short, but it does remind us of the time when sheep still roamed freely over the heath of the Veluwezoom National Park. The sheep spent the night in the sheepfold, where the next day manure could be made from the droppings that the sheep left behind in the fold. With the invention of artificial fertilizer, this is no longer necessary today. Then via the village of Rheden and the ferry for the IJssel in a westerly direction to the starting point and parking lot.