Evergreens – gravel in and around NP De Meinweg

With the after-effects of corona, the whole round was not in it, but the round from break place to break place went well. Bockerijders puts central Limburg on the map, what a great gravel area!

Grandiose? Epic? Legendary? What superlatives do you use to describe a route like this? Inspired by one of the Evergreens of @Gijs Bruinsma - routemeester, @Winfred and I set off from Baarlo towards the famous Meinweg for a fantastic gravel adventure. An Evergreen is what @Gijs Bruinsma - routemeester calls this, a trip that you can actually cycle over and over again and that never gets boring. This was the first time we cycled this loop in the Meinweg, but I can wholeheartedly confirm that I can cycle it 20 more times. I hereby call it an "epic Evergreen". Shortly from Baarlo, still on the west bank of the Maas, it is already over wide stretches of gravel, and shortly after the ferry at Kessel, on the east bank, the asphalt actually quickly disappears completely from view. Long straight wide stretches of gravel, sometimes a bit sandy, sometimes hard pieces of dried mud (after all, it hasn't rained for weeks), but almost non-stop unpaved. Sometimes a bit up, sometimes a bit down, through dense forests and along beautiful (dry) heaths. Sometimes a cart track, sometimes some holes, but mainly a lot of authentic smooth gravel that you can thunder over at top speed with that wonderful crunching sound under your tires. Surreal is the bizarrely wide paved cycle path (Meinweg) that suddenly appears in the middle of the forests and takes you slightly uphill to the easternmost point of the route; then twice left, and then just over the border in Germany lies one of the most beautiful kilometers long stretches of gravel at your feet. Slightly downhill, wind in your back, and phenomenal views. Pure gravel pleasure! And then you are only just over halfway. Bend after bend there is another long gravel strip in front of you, there really is no end to it. Roughly 80% of the route is without any form of paving or asphalt. For kilometres you imagine yourself in the middle of nowhere, no buildings or other road users in sight, only forest, heathland, and sometimes something that looks like a meadow. Towards the end it goes over the enormously wide gravel road through the Brachter Wald, where you have to pay attention, because the pace is high due to the slight descent, while the shadows of the trees make the holes and soft patches difficult to distinguish. Only when we can hear the A73 near Venlo, our tyres zoom over asphalt again and later cobblestones, which brings us to the ferry at Steyl, for a last look over the beautiful banks of the Maas. Yes, an absolute Evergreen, I will do this more often!

@John Timmermans (jeetee14) Thnx for the beautiful route!

A great gravel route through the De Meinweg nature reserve! The route repeatedly crosses or runs along the German-Dutch border, and most of the time you don't know which country you're in 😁

On a Monday at 25 degrees in September, this is a gift! @Super beautiful ride with a completely different nature than ours in Gelderland (Nijmegen-Beuningen) but really beautiful.. Real gravel roads as they are intended, I think 🤷🏻. the altitude meters are more than indicated (about 340+). Enjoy

mega gravel circuit along the border. Luckily, the rain god opened the floodgates of heaven once more... who wants to go home dry and without a muddy crust?

Start at the Brasserie de Boshut car park in Herkenbosch. The Brachter Wald is a former ammunition depot that has been designated as a protected nature reserve since 1997. Beautiful route by Cindy Huberts