Trans Euro Trail highlights Belgium and The Netherlands

The truth is that I’ve been holding off writing this blog. Practical advice isn’t really my strong point. Mostly I write about experiences, thoughts, plans or adventures. First, I did this on paper. Then, during my stay in Ecuador, it moved online, simply because it was a requirement to obtain a scholarship. From then on, I kept on sharing. One year a little more than the other. And now I made a promise to write a separate blog highlighting my favourite parts of the Trans Euro Trail (TET) in Belgium and The Netherlands. Here it goes! However, don’t be too hard on me. And if you want to know more, just send me a message.

Preparation wise there isn’t much to do. In Belgium and The Netherlands you’ll never be far away from civilization. We packed our tent and sleeping gear, food for a few days, cooking utensils and a water bladder to carry enough drinking water. We packed everything on our bikes and just rode. We rode all day, stopped when we got hungry and then, around 5 pm got our phones out and looked for a place to sleep. As we had our tent this meant that we looked for the nearest camping. In Belgium we often had to ride an additional 30 minutes to reach a camping, but in The Netherlands there never seemed to be a shortage of ‘minicampings’.  Basically, small camping’s in someone’s garden going from pretty basic to luxurious with a cozy place to sit inside in the evening. What makes these ‘minicampings’ even better is the small price. For 2 people and 2 bikes with a tent we always paid between 10€ and 17,5€. Never a penny more. At least I could let go of my fear that this trip would turn out to be crazy expensive.

Now, let’s talk some TET! Sadly, last weekend we discovered that the TET in Belgium has completely changed and currently hardly contains any off-road. Apparently there have been too many complaints. There are some tracks left, but nothing like what it was before. We rode about 100 kilometres of which maybe 3 on gravel or muddy roads. After that we decided to change plans. Don’t get me wrong, the roads and the surroundings are still beautiful, but setting out to go off-road riding it didn’t meet our expectations. Because of this update I won’t go into detail about the tracks in Belgium for now. I’ll first have to re-ride the lot to see if there are still some good spots lying around.

Now, the trails in The Netherlands. We preferred the part in North-Brabant, the part going through Maasduinen National Park and the part between Almelo and Hoogeveen. Once we reached this place corona decided to throw a spanner in the works and we turned back to avoid any quarantine on our return to Belgium. So, for tips about the Drenthe Loop I won’t yet be able to help you. The above-mentioned parts mostly turned out to be our favorite because they contained quite a lot of off-road riding and that was in essence what we set out to do. There should even be a river crossing in North-Brabant, but after a dry summer there wasn’t any water left to cross. We’ll go back for that during winter or spring! Apart from different terrain going from sand over mud to gravel, the surroundings are equally beautiful. National parks, forests, heather, sand dunes and meadows. Personally, I’m not a big meadow fan, but that’s mainly because we’ve already got a lot of them in Belgium. If you’re travelling alone and riding on a big bike without a lot of off-road experience, I would be weary of the deep sand section in North-Brabant. Not because it’s not worth it, but rather, it might get annoying to have to pick up your bike on your own time and time again. I’ve heard that some bikes then decide to ride on the paved bicycle path next to the trail, but I would definitely recommend against that. Just be aware of what you’re getting yourself into before you start. Before the deep sand section there is however a part you definitely shouldn’t miss out on, whatever bike you are riding! I call it the ‘hilly forest bit’, but that’s not the official name for sure. The terrain is slightly sandy with one little hill after the other, a bit like on a motocross track. Riding there feels like being in an amusement park. And the good thing is, you can make it as hard or easy as you prefer!

Of course, apart from these parts in North-Brabant there is the sandy hill in Maasduinen National Park (Limburg). Overall the tracks in that area are just unpaved roads, but for people who don’t have experience with sandy hill climbs this is the perfect place to get accustomed to them. Just beware of the horseback riders! They may tell you to fuck off and push your bike aside through the sand without turning the engine back on. Just keep in mind that they are probably scared for the horse to throw a tantrum with them on top of it.

Continuing our journey further North the tracks overall were easy going. Maybe that was just because our off-riding skills had improved so much, but I quite doubt that. Anyhow, all I can say is, go and discover it for yourself! And if you don’t have time to do it all at once, just do one part at a time. In the end you can only have fun.