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Peel Path - Stage 19

Peel path

This stage from Overloon to De Rips goes through the forest areas Het Helder, Ballonzuilbossen, Zwartwater, Vinkenpeel and the Aerlesche Peel.

Distance: 21 km.

Time: 5h00.

Grade: Moderate.

Type: Point to point.

Gps Track: Yes.

Route description: Yes.

Wheelchair: Not suitable.

Dog: Allowed.

Height gain: No info.

Trail: 72% unpaved.

Marking: See PDF route description.

Hiking shoes recommended.

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La Poste de Paris.

With Overloon as the starting point, the stage returns to the Peel, the forest areas Het Helder, Ballonzuilbossen and the Zwartwater have been planted on wild peel soils for wood production. The Ballonzuilbossen is a forest area with wide avenues interspersed with narrow paths. In this forest area there is a monument “De Ballonzuil”, the first aviation monument in the Netherlands and commemorates the landing of the balloon “La Poste de Paris”. This balloon left Paris during the Franco-Prussian war on January 18, 1871, to seek help. Instead of Bordeaux, the balloon ended up in Merselo. In the Zwartwater forest area there are beautiful open areas where you get a good impression of what the area must have looked like in the past. The forest area has been planted on very poor soil where the trees in the open areas have not survived. The Vinkenpeel, named after the brothers Jan-Berend and Adam Roelvink, and the Aerlesche Peel are mined peel areas. During reclamation, the former high moor areas were converted into fields and forest areas. This stage passes the Peel Canal / Defense Canal, which was dug at the end of the 1930s as a drainage canal that flows into the Raam river in the north. Together this formed the Peel-Raamstelling, which formed a line of defense against a possible German invasion. The line has a length of approximately 100 km with more than 330 casemates. Furthermore, you will encounter a boundary marker at four places during this stage. These four boundary markers, together with nine others, form a historical boundary line, the oldest known land border in the present-day Netherlands. The boundary markers all have a distinctive name. The border marker at the Peelkanaal is the Vredepaal.

Peel path

Download PDF for route description.

Map & Poi's.