It’s Wednesday and we are heading south. Camping at ‘t Hoog at Helvoirt was much easier to find than either of the last two campsites. We arrived shortly after noon and had a choice of pitches. One near to a kiddies’ play area, the other near some older caravan folks. Needless to say we didn’t overlook the swings.
We treated ourselves to a brief lunch and then headed off on bikes to the town. Only we headed for the wrong town, eventually finding the right “centrum” a few more miles from where we had been headed. We meant to head for the centre of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, known as Den Bosch, but we had instead headed in the direction of Vught, which is next to Den Bosch.
Good job we’d set off early. A visit to the tourist info office resulted in us being provided with a map and printed instructions on how to get back to the campsite. Result.
After a good walk around the town and a visit to the local worshipping house, we enjoyed a few drinks and an hour or so ‘people watching’, before heading back to the campsite in the correct direction, courtesy of our new map and instructions.
Our neighbour at the campsite struck up a conversation. Well, we were the only Brits on site, and the only ones in a Moho. On hearing that we would only be staying one night she pointed out that we were camped next to the largest set of sand dunes in Europe and that they were a delight to cycle around. This persuaded us to stay an extra night, well it was only €18 per night, and another very well maintained site….the only “fault” being that our pitch was too close to the trees for us to be able to watch the footie…so, England’s demise was witnessed only on radio. On the croissant front, we found 4 for a Euro, at the local EMTEE store.
Anyway, we spent the following day in the sunshine cycling a round trip of about 25 miles through the dunes and stopping to enjoy a lunch and a beer to break the day. The dunes were quite magical. Picture the New Forest, plus some lakes, plus miles of warm, golden sand..oh, and all that safe, off-road cycling.
These were no ordinary dunes, we had in fact, camped right next to the Nationaal Park de Loonse et Drunense Duinen, nicknamed the Brabant Sahara. The park extends to around 10km by 4km and is criss crossed by cycle paths.
What a place! We were so glad our neighbour had suggested this trip. The evening was spent enjoying some more cold beers, in the rural quiet. We were off on our travels, next day.
Click on the photo for more sights from our stay here.
Click on the photo for more sights from our stay here.