Cycling as frequently as I do, it’s quite easy to overlook nice places to ride closer to home.

I often cycle straight past minor roads & forest tracks on my way to somewhere else, so this afternoon my 20 km outing explored some of these not so hidden gems.

My first stop was 5 km from home at an attractive lake called Roeventerpeel, alongside a busy motorway & home to a variety of wildlife.

5 km further on I came to another wildlife reserve, Schoorkuilen which was busy with visitors as well as bird life on the water.

13 km from home was another such reserve called Sarsven where rusty steel sculptures adorned the landscape and a simple photographic ‘hide’ at the waters edge enables fairly close-up observation of the wildlife.

Given that it’s only April, the countryside is very dry and agricultural sprinklers are everywhere. We have not had significant rain in Limburg for over a month & already there have been two substantial forest & heathland fires in the province.

I was only away from home for about 100 minutes but what I rich variety of colours and landscape I’ve experienced this afternoon.

#CW5000 : 6482.0 KM TO GO!

More to Explore: