The Landscape

The Ooijpolder and the Millingerwaard are part of the De Gelderse Poort National Landscape: a river landscape with a long history of habitation. The Ooijpolder is a surprisingly large area along the river Waal of more than 2,000 hectares. Before the dikes were built, this was a rough and swampy area where the Waal regularly flooded the land. Without the river, the polder would not exist at all, because many layers of sand and fertile clay have been deposited due to the many floods. However, the river was also hostile, hundreds of people lost their lives, and even entire villages were washed away by the rising water. The Millingerwaard is one of the oldest nature development areas along the Waal. Until the mid-1990s it was an agricultural area. Now it is an area with riparian forests, swamps, herbaceous grasslands, pools, and river dunes where horses and cattle roam freely and the beavers lustily gnaw. Around the Millingerwaard is a high sandy levee that has now grown into one of the highest river dunes in the Netherlands.

Polders and Farmlands

Swamps and Peatlands

Lakes and Ponds

Rivers and Streams

Bike with us

Virtual cycling in Ooijpolder and Millingerwaard

Route map

Start and finish near bike node 66 at the Kerkdijk in Erlecom. However, this bike route is a circular tour, so it offers the possibility to start from any of the following bike nodes.

66 - 99 - 49 - 50 - 55 - 48 - 16 - 51 - 52 - 49 - 67 - 95 - 71 - 72 - 95 - 65 - 93 - 35 - 67 - 66

47
Kilometers
188
Minutes
88
Elevation meters