Herkingen - Nieuw-Vossemeer - Bergen op Zoom
- Distance: 35km
- Duration (with breaks): 9h 00min
- Route type: point-to-point
- Start: Herkingen
- Finish: Bergen op Zoom
Yep, today is a big day. My first +30km day in my hiking career 🙂 I’m merging two stages and hiking all the way to Bergen op Zoom as there was no ideal option to leave the trail somewhere in between.
After a royal breakfast, I left the cozy B&B around 8:00 and got back on a dyke. It was so peaceful and beautiful as I watched the sun slowly rising above the Grevelingenmeer.
One thing kept me restlessly scanning the horizon though. Where are those flamingos?? Herkingen was quite far behind and I still couldn’t spot them. At some point, I thought that either they were somewhere in the harbor and I missed them or they just left.
Until I saw a weird light cloud in the distant water. The closer I went, the brighter the spot became and soon I could confirm: yes, those are the flamingos! The area between the dyke and the lake is fenced and protected, so I could admire the beautiful birds from the distance only. Anyway, those were the coolest birds I’ve seen in the wild in the Netherlands.
I continued on the dyke, which led me to Grevelingdam, from where an industrial section of the trail started. Almost 10km of crossing two dams and observing all the infrastructure to protect the Netherlands from the floods. Only in this country, you can walk in such places as there are bike paths everywhere.
Somewhere on Philipsdam my hips started hurting and walking was getting uncomfortable so I kept on stopping for short breaks and stretches. I had a theory that pain arose because of moving my body in the same motion for a few days. Or maybe my hips were done with +25km walks every day. This section was challenging and felt quite long.
After 2 hours of walking on a bike tarmac surrounded by passing car noises, I was relieved to finally walk on a grassy path towards Slikken van de Heen. My B&B host said this place was one of his favorites on the Dutch GR5 section. Unfortunately, I did not get to explore it as it was closed for recovery. I walked on the side of it though and was just glad to have some peace and quiet.
Between Slikken van de Heen and Nieuw-Vossemeer, the path goes mainly on a dyke with several options to observe rural dutch life and birds in nearby islands and nature reserves. As I was tight on time, I did not walk to Nieuw-Vossemeer, but at its border turned towards the river and back on GR5. Back on the bike path!
The dyke obscured the view of the river for a while until I reached a park for walking next to the river. A great place for a break, just be aware of sheep and their poo in some parts of the park. From the park, I was back on a bike path and approaching the villages around Bergen op Zoom.
Somewhere in those villages I got a rush of energy and started to feel confident about reaching my goal. Let’s do this! As the evening was setting in, I entered the outskirts of Bergen op Zoom and pressed on. Since the path leads through several parks, it didn’t even feel like walking in a city for a long time. You can imagine my relief when I saw that the train station is 1 km away, only 1 km!
I made it to the station just before 17:00 and even got a bus home straight away. I was so proud of myself and bloody tired. What a day, what a weekend!
Day 4 tips
- The flamingos! I've spotted them approximately 30min walk from Herkingen, so don't get discouraged if they're not in sight right away.
- There is a viewing tower on the Philipsdam, overlooking the infrastructure (and all that water) of the area.
- For bird lovers, there are several bird spotting places very close to the trail. One of them - just a 10 min walk from the view tower (across the parking lot of the tower, turn left and follow a grassy path towards the bushes).