When someone tells you they’ve been cycling through the trees, it would be fair to assume they were earthbound on trails weaving between tree trunks, not 10 metres in the air cycling past leafy branches. Yet, in the depths of the glorious Bosland National Park, a raised cycle path takes you around a double circle 100 meters in diameter to a height of 10 meters above the pine needle covered forest floor, until you are in the treetops.
Cycling Through the Trees, as it is known, is a fabulous and thrilling gimmick, a bridge to nowhere except where you started. It is utterly wonderful and just another example of how the Flemish region of Limburg has gone the extra mile to lure cyclists to the region. Cycling Through the Trees had been on my radar for a while, but reaching it by train requires a long ride from the nearest station.
I bit the bullet one fine Saturday morning and headed to the Belgian garrison town of Leopoldsburg. Apart from a massive military base and training grounds that sprawl across large areas of heathland, Leopoldsburg seems to offer little for the average visitor. Although the presence of a Sherman Firefly Tank outside the railway station was a clue that this area has seen some history.
On 17th September 1944, the British launched Operation Market Garden. An ambitious attempt to cross the River Rhine into Germany, it involved parachuting soldiers into the Netherlands, most famously at Arnhem, to capture vital bridges. Meanwhile, British and American forces in Belgium were to rapidly advance against what were thought to be weak German defences to relieve the troops dropped behind German lines.
It was through this area of Belgium that the British advanced, and where the failure of the operation unfolded. The tank is a memorial to those who died attempting to liberate Belgium and the Netherlands. I came across another Sherman tank in the town of Hechtel-Eksel, this commemorates the 35 civilians, 92 British soldiers and 124 German soldiers who died in battle here.
It wasn’t the only war related sight of this trip. A few kilometres on from Cycling Through the Trees is the largest German Second World War cemetery in Western Europe. Just outside the town of Lommel, over 39,000 soldiers are buried in a cemetery set amidst peaceful countryside and under the shade of oak trees. It is a poignant place designed for remembrance.
The German soldiers buried here mostly died at the end of the war in 1944 and 1945: the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest and several battles to capture Aachen. The tragedy as you walk along row upon row of headstones is the age of those who died. Most were in their twenties, many were teenagers. Leaving the cemetery behind I passed by the lovely Leyssensmolen, a 200-year old windmill, and on into Lommel.
Lommel seemed a relaxed place as I cycled into the pedestrianised centre close to St. Peter’s Church. Near here is the GlazenHuis, the Flemish Centre for Contemporary Glass Art. At the back of the building is an open window that looks down into a studio with kilns where you can watch glass items being made. It was very exciting and not just for the young children who arrived as I watched the glass makers at work.
In 1845, quartz sand, known as silver sand or glass sand, was discovered in Lommel. It has a high quartz content, is very pure and perfect for making high-quality glass. It is also exceptionally rare. There’s a reason Lommel is known as the Glass City of Flanders. It also explains why north of the centre there is an area known as Sahara Lommel. A large sandy plain that mimics a desert, just with lakes and pine woods, it is now a nature reserve.
On the edge of the Sahara I came across a sculpture by Belgian artist Will Beckers called House of Nature, which was quite a sight nestled in the trees. From here I cycled into the Hageven nature reserve only a few hundred metres from the Dutch border. The route then took me along the Bocholt–Herentals Canal before looping through the Bosland nature reserve and back, exhausted, to Leopoldsburg
Notes from Camelid Country 