Heathlands and the largest fen in the Netherlands

Your route starts at lunch restaurant De Broeders in the Klooster van Providentia, just outside the village of Sterksel. From here you quickly cycle through the rectangular forest plots and newly created heathlands of the Somerense Heide. A little further on you pass Den Evert, a former ban mill of the Abdij van Postel from 1543. Past Someren you cycle to the Strabrechtse Heide, with 1500 ha the largest heathland in the South of the Netherlands. Here you will also find the largest fen in the country, the Beuven. On the other side of Heeze you will find the Groote Heide and the Leenderbos, two large contiguous nature reserves. What a silence you experience here! Finally you come through Leenderstrijp and Sterksel: characteristic Brabant villages where time seems to have stood still a little.