Maasland to Camping Beek en Hei, Otterlo, Gelderland – 77 miles

Open all year. www.beekenhei.nl. High season rate €23.93 inc 10 amp elec and taxes. (ACSI Card reduction low season.) WiFi €3 one day, €4 for two days, €1.50 per day for three days plus. Showers €0.50.  N 52.09214  E5.77072

Warm and sunny again for the drive along Oostgang (N468) past Schipluiden – a canalside scene of ducks, bicycles and windmill – to join the A4 near Delft. Then A12 past Utrecht to exit 23 (Ede), onto the A30 northwards for exit 2, and the N304 to Otterlo. We turn left before the village for our favourite of several campsites in the area: 'Beek en Hei' meaning brook and heath. I reviewed it for ACSI last year:

"A very well kept campsite tucked away in quiet woodland, just 1 km from the village of Otterlo with its shops and cafes. Extremely friendly helpful staff and good clean facilities. Breads, ices and fresh eggs on sale. Site-wide WiFi at a small cost was very reliable. Excellent base for cycling in the Hoge Veluwe forest, with bike paths in every direction. We came for a couple of nights and stayed 3 weeks!"

It's an extensive site, on each side of a gravel road/bike path in the forest, with separate areas for different campers - tents, families, long-term or short-stay. We find a quiet, privately hedged pitch and settle in with the resident rabbits. Not forgetting the hens, whose eggs we buy.

The WiFi works well and the facilities are good, apart from a meagre 6-amp hook-up which the microwave soon trips! Meanwhile, Barry removes a tiny nail from the soft rear tyre of my bike, ready to take to the Fietspad tomorrow.

At Camping Beek en Hei, Otterlo

Click: magbazpictures.com/cycling-in-the-netherlands

Over a 2-week stay we regularly stroll into Otterlo (1.5 km) to visit its well-stocked hardware shop, Spar supermarket/post office/bakery with free coffee dispenser, and the excellent cycle shop (Geerts Tweewielers) where we buy a new tyre. There is a memorial to the Canadians, British and civilians killed here in April 1945 in the last battle for the liberation of the Netherlands, following Operation Market Garden in September 1944. 

On a few rainy days we have emails to write, the travelog of Spring in Ireland to finish, Radio 4 and the Guardian to keep us in touch with events, and films for entertainment. Local TV showed a lovely film 'Brideflight' set in 1950s New Zealand, following the lives of a group of Dutch women who answered an appeal for immigrant females. We also start watching the 'Boardwalk Empire' series, which is addictive.

One evening there is a free slide show and coffee in the camp Common Room with a very enthusiastic naturalist talking about moths and their caterpillars. Difficult to follow in Dutch but he answers questions in English. After dark a 'moth tent' is erected with lights to attract disappointingly few specimens. Apparently heathland would be better than the forest, where many moths are eaten by bats.     

But the beauty of Otterlo, the reason we are back, is to cycle the Fietspads (cycle paths) that radiate in all directions, fuelled by plentiful coffee and apple cake!

Cycling by Numbers

The Fietspads of the Netherlands form a complete network, with signposts and maps at numbered junctions. They vary in width and surface but provide well-used and safe routes around and between every town and village. See our Guide to Cycling in the Netherlands.We enjoy 6 rides from Otterlo, some new and some old favourites.

1. Cycling to Kootwijk village & back (30 km): Many cyclists are out on Saturday morning as we ride into Otterlo to buy cheese & ham croissants with free coffee at the Spar before riding north on the path alongside rd N310. After Harskamp we turn along a minor road northeast for 5 km to Kootwijk village. A welcome ice cream break at Restaurant de Brinkhof, and back on a narrow Fietspad through the woods to meet and cross N310, then south on lanes returning to Otterlo.
2. Cycling to the town of Ede & back (26 km): On a cloudy morning we ride through the forest and across the Ederheide heath on excellent sealed Fietspads, much quieter mid-week. In the modern town of Ede, completely rebuilt after 1945, we sit by the market square outside our favourite 'Lunch Café de Markt' (11 km) as the church clock strikes noon. Lunch is Granny's Pea Soup with ham sandwich for M, a Hawaiian toastie and salad for B, followed by coffee served with a small pot of whipped cream and Advokaat liqueur, as well as the customary biscuit. The café also does wonderful Appelkoeken met Slagroom (apple tart with cream).

We return on a more direct woodland route and circle round by Otterlo's entrance to the Hoge Veluwe National Park before riding back to camp. The Hoge Veluwe, planted as a royal hunting forest and still home to deer and wild boar, is a large fenced private nature reserve with entrance fee to park and museum, art gallery fee, parking fee, coaches of Oriental visitors, horse-drawn carts etc. There is no reduction for simple entry to cycle through the park, even for seniors. Hoge does mean 'high' and it's one of the three highest places in the Netherlands, at 33 m or 109 ft! The prices are certainly steep.

1. Cycling to Radio Kootwijk & back via Hoenderloo (38 km): On a cool morning with a hint of rain we ride the cycle path alongside N310 to Harskamp. Here we turn off on a dirt track through the sandy woods to the eerie 'Kathedral Radio Kootwijk', a huge 1920s concrete building used as a signal station during WW2, rising high above the open heathland. The restored edifice is now open to visit for €5 but only on Wednesdays, 11 am-3 pm – and today is Thursday. We continue on the Fietspad to Hoenderloo, a smoothly sealed but more strenuous route that crosses hilly open heath and winds through rolling woodland before meeting the road about 1 km before the village.

'Broodhuis Lokaliteit', the bakery café in Hoenderloo, is popular with cyclists who can freely refill water bottles, consult maps or even recharge e-bikes here! We just tuck in to generous servings of blueberry cake with our coffee. We return to Otterlo on a separate path alongside the main road for the final 10 km.

1. Cycling the perimeter of the Hoge Veluwe National Park (48 km): Armed with a packed lunch, we complete a wide circle anticlockwise round the edge of the Park. Going east from Otterlo, then south alongside N310, east on N311 and north on a separate path alongside the A50 via Terle, we come to Groenendal (20 km) and sit under the trees to eat our sandwiches. On through Woeste Hoeve before turning west to an applecake break in Hoenderloo, then the final 10 km to Otterlo. The varied ride follows paths on tarmac, as well as gravel paths through forest and moorland.
2. Cycling to Lunteren & back via Ede (40 km): We ride some paths that are new to us, west from Otterlo via Roekel to Lunteren on a mixture of tracks through woodland and alongside roads. In Lunteren (20 km) we eat our sandwiches in the park by the splendid new library, which has toilets, an art exhibition and a small coffee bar. Then we turn south to Ede, where Tuesday is market day, filling the square (and our favourite café). Enjoying ices from the Italian ice parlour, we watch the crowd, with music playing and a performer blowing giant bubbles! Return to Otterlo by the most direct route, the path alongside N304.