Back in 2020, the Belgian government offered every Belgian 5 free return train tickets to boost morale, the economy and local tourism (hashtag staycation and all that). One of my return trips was to the Kalmthoutse Heide, a beautiful nature park (one of the oldest in Belgium; protected landscape since 1941, state reserve since 1968) on the border with the Netherlands. It’s part of the cross-border park De Zoom – Kalmthoutse Heide, but of course at the time, we weren’t allowed to cross the border so we had to stay in the Belgian part of the park. The park is situated about 18 km north of Antwerp, so possible as a lovely side trip if you ever find yourself in Antwerp!
The park has quite a few different landscapes: you’ll find heath, dunes as well as coniferous forest – all rather different from the usual Flemish landscapes. The park looks its best from half August until half September, when the Calluna Vulgaris aka heather paints the heath purple. Unfortunately, I hadn’t timed my visit well (or the period of the free tickets started too late, my memory’s not quite clear on that) so most of the heather had already turned brown. Nevertheless, it was beautiful and I thoroughly recommend it.
^Very African savannah, this one!
^Having fun with the editing software. 😀
^A last bit of blooming heather (the colour of the rest of the heather in the background).
^The Dutch border on the horizon.
^This view was incredibly similar to scenery in New Zealand (Kalmthout above, Christchurch below).
What do you think? Very similar, right? Sheep included!
yoooya 