Hondsrug and Sleenerzand
Cycling in a fascinating landscape with extensive forest ranges, open moors, quiet fens and picturesque stream valleys.
The Landscape
The gently sloping landscape of the Hondsrug was formed during the last two ice ages. The land ice and meltwater formed the area into hill ridges and stream valleys. At the time, the Hondsrug was the only region in the wide area where it was possible to live and travel without wet feet. An elongated boulder clay ridge in the north of the Netherlands, surrounded by swamps and marshy peat. This is where Neanderthals went to hunt for mammoths 100,000 years ago. About 5,000 years ago, dolmen builders built their impressive tombs here from huge boulders that had been brought from Scandinavia by the ice masses. The first farmers laid fields here, built houses and later whole villages. On the moors you can still find the traces of the wagons and carts that sought their way in the soft ground in the Middle Ages. That Hondsrug still exists. A varied landscape where nature looks different every moment of the day and where you sometimes have the feeling that you are in an open-air museum.
Forests and Heaths
Polders and Farmlands
Swamps and Peatlands
Lakes and Ponds
Bike with us
Route map
You will bike in the vicinity of the towns of Emmen, Odoorn, Schoonoord, Borger, Buinen, and Exloo.
Start and finish near bike node 33 on the Veenweg in Het Haantje. However, this bike route is a circular tour, so it offers the possibility to start from any of the following bike nodes.
33 - 73 - 75 - 77 - 59 - 66 - 56 - 74 - 57 - 17 - 22 - 28 - 23 - 26 - 24 - 6 - 38 - 36 - 34 - 33
