Hiking Boxtel to Oisterwijk, North Brabant, Netherlands

Purple health in the Kampina nature park

Today's adventure took us a little further from home to the Kampina nature park in the province of North Brabant (in the south). Located between the small town of Boxtel and Oistewijkse the reserve is full of all kinds of rare animals and plants. 

Stapelen Castle, Boxtel

After stopping for lunch supplies at the local Aldi supermarket it took a little scrambling to find the path. 

Our team Dutch-walking-instructions translator probably hadn't had enough coffee yet and our walking-path-marker spotter was off with the fairies. 

The initial roundabout circles we made in the town of Boxtel though gave us a chance to check out the cute Stapelen Castle.

Built in 1293 and renovated in the 19th century the castle belonged to Willem Boxtel. Other than the castle we read a small sign in the town plaza that Boxtel was the site of the Battle of Boxtel fought in September  1794 during the Flanders campaign. 

It's hard to imagine the tiny town as a wicked battle centre.

And we are on the path!

Entering the forest

Once we found the marked walking path it was nearly lunch time but we persevered on, saving our picnic for a little further into the walk. It was a great day for our 16km flat as a pancake hike- a few spotted clouds and some end of the summer breeze. As we began to enter a beautiful green forest we passed many other friendly walkers and shared a guttural Dutch greeting. 

The friendly happy hikers

Following the trail

Crossing the old river valleys

We crossed narrow streams, their banks dotted with wild flowers and we walked past grassy paddocks. Interestingly the forest and park is part of a network of nutrient rich river valleys. Traced back to the last ice age the park and many of its lakes were formed after the glaciers melted away.

Wild purple heath

A dry arid landscape

Marshy lowlands

Oisterwijkse fens

Crazy corn fields

In some places we crossed over dry marshy low lands and beneath the purple heath was a golden yellow sand. 

Our favourite part of the hike was passing the Oisterwijkse fens, the Goorven (goor means swamp) ponds looked amazing - the beautiful jagged shoreline raced up to meet the clouds. 

John by the Goorven fen

In a few hours we had arrived in the town of Oisterwijkse happy to have been able to loose ourselves in the nature. 

The park was well worth the visit and although there wasn't as many animals as we had hoped we really enjoyed ourselves!

Tot siens,

John and Kara