Witweg: 'Kaapse Bossen', retracing my steps

Yesterday I went for a walk through woods which I have loved since I first set foot in them in my teens. As a family with five children and little money, it was not easy to afford a holiday when I was a child. But we were lucky to live on the coast and so easily swapped houses with families living in wooded parts of the country. Life was simple. We cycled, went for long walks, picked blackberries or blueberries according to the season, enjoyed different views, the purple heather, the ice-cold water of the brooks which we discovered, shelled peanuts, explored the woods opposite which surrounded some of the houses we lived in during the holidays, and had chores peeling the potatoes, shelling peas and washing the dishes.

The 'Postweg'

A field surrounded by a strip of wild flowers

When I was in my early teens, we had the luxury to stay in a guesthouse, in a former country house, at that time a conference centre and a holiday place for families. It was situated on the border of farmland and the wooded sandhills, a place for many rich farms and big country houses. Opposite, across a provincial road, were the woods, the ‘Kaapse Bossen’. As a child I had a love-hate relationship with the sea, or rather the beach. It was too hot in summer, and too windy and cold in a winter, with no trees to provide shelter against the elements, or the burning sun in summer which gave me headaches and blistered my skin, even gave me sun stroke once which made me very ill indeed. I was delighted by the woods, the trees protecting me from the sun, and giving shelter against wind and rain. Besides, those woods are not flat, but in fact on a sandy ridge which stretches from west to east through two provinces.

Some of the pretty row of cottages, once labourers' cottages for the people working in depot Sandenburg of a tramway which from 1885 till the end of World War II, when the line was bombed, connected Doorn with Wijk bij Duurstede.

I have crossed through that area many times since, by car, by bike, enjoying it, but I never again walked in those woods. So I decided to give it a go, headed in that direction and put on my walking shoes.

Corn and wild flowers

The first leg of the walk went through the area opposite the woods, where the guesthouse was, a rural area with fields, meadows where cows lazily grazed, interspersed with woodland, dissected by treelined lanes and dirt roads. To my delight the fields planted with corn were on four sides surrounded by a strip of wild flowers, so important for butterflies, bees and wildlife in general. Among them bright red poppies and blue cornflowers, the latter rarely seen nowadays. I walked along the ‘Postweg’ , which I already adored as a teenager, a dirt road now so full of potholes and deep ridges, filled with water from recent heavy rainfall, that any stage coach would surely be wrecked immediately. It was quiet with hardly anybody around. Only the wind rustling the leaves could be heard. The beech trees are very mature, their silver-grey, straight trunks proud and elegant. Many rhododendrons grow here as well, once planted on the estates, at this time of year in midsummer unfortunately no longer in bloom. Most of them so large that as youngsters we could hide in them. Then they seemed dark and menacing, taken from a fairy-tale story.

The 'Kaapse Bossen'

Crossing the road into the woods again, I really missed the fields, the lanes and the lush vegetation of that first part of the walk. But the woods too are varied, the large areas with pine trees in places dissected by drives and avenues lined with oak trees and beeches, some still leading to large houses hidden in the woods on the top of a hill.

The woods are very diverse

A deer gazing in a field surrounding one of the big estates, the Ruiterberg

The gatehouse to the 'Ruiterberg'

The ramshackle and simple wooden view tower I remembered had been replaced by an ultra-modern and very high viewing tower with so many steps that I decided to leave that for another time. Perhaps a pity, as it seems to offer a beautiful and far reaching view over the treetops towards the river Rhine and some far-off cities with characteristic towers.

The modern viewing tower, 'De Kaap'

On another hill is a very nice teashop and restaurant, the Helena Hill. When we were young, we thought it looked very attractive indeed, but it was far too expensive to have a drink there with our family of seven. Now of course I could and I did, enjoying the view, a delicious cake and the place itself enormously. It gave me new energy for the last part of this walk.

Helena hill, the restaurant

Daytrips are all very well, as Holland is not very big. The trouble is the intensity of the traffic. The former guesthouse on the other side of the road would have been a perfect place for an overnight stay. But even a not unusual delay because of a traffic jam on my way back, did not spoil my day. I was happy to put my feet up once at home, and enjoy a home-cooked meal and a glass of wine.