Ronde Maasland and Maashorst

The tour starts from the parking lot of nature reserve Engelenstede near the hamlet of Kaathoven. You first cycle through nature reserve Engelenstede, along a part of this road runs a non-mandatory cycle path (sign G13 of the Rijksverkeerswet). Then you cross the A59 near the Autotron and follow a wide cycle path for about 2 kilometers. The route then goes towards Nuland over the Waterleidingstraat. Please note: this street has become a bicycle street, which means that you can ignore the (no longer maintained) cycle paths along this road. Just before Nuland, the bicycle street turns into a separate cycle path and goes along the Nulandse Heide. In the meantime, you have moved from the Meierij region to the region referred to as Maasland (the northeastern part of the province of North Brabant that borders the Maas). Then you go into the polders and cycle through meadow landscape with wide views. After 18 km from the starting point you will arrive at the Maas and follow the Maasdijk from Maren to Kessel and on to Lith. In Lith you leave the dike to get back on the dike until just past Lithoijen (and you follow a small part of mandatory cycle path). Via Oijen and Marcharen you cycle to Megen. Megen is a beautiful town with a historic village center (and cobblestone roads). The route goes around the historic village center and via the bicycle street over the dike along Megen. Then you go towards Dieden, and from Dieden to Ravenstein over the Maasdijk there is again a non-mandatory cycle path along the road over a length of 4.5 kilometers. Just before Ravenstein, the cycle path stops and you cycle past the beautiful historic village center of Ravenstein, where you can take a cursory look at the Maaspoort. The route continues to follow the Meuse in the direction of Overlangel. At Overlangel you cross the old Maasarm to Keent and go through the Keentse floodplains.

Then at kilometer 60 it is over with the Meuse landscape. You now cycle towards the Maashorsten nature reserve and in this beautiful nature reserve you follow some free-lying asphalted cycle paths (over a distance of 4 kilometers) where you pass the Munse Heide and the Kanonsberg. These cycle paths were widened to a width of 2.25m in June 2016 to make it safer for cyclists. You can also choose to avoid these cycle paths by not turning left at the hamlet of Mun to the N324 national road but going straight ahead and following the cycle path over the ecoduct (the route will then be about 5 kilometres shorter). After a short passage through Nistelrode you cycle back to Kaathoven on mostly quiet roads via the hamlet of Donzel and the village of Loosbroek and you leave the maasland region. From Kaathoven to the end point you still have to follow a mandatory cycle path for about a kilometer. This means that the number of kilometres of mandatory cycle paths along main roads on this route has been limited to only a handful of kilometres.