When In Brabant Hike In Brabant

When I settled in Brabant I became a member of a walking club. This is a way  to get to know people and Brabant, I thought. Unfortunately there were two reasons not to continue with the membership:

• The members were all much older than me. Could be a lot of fun, but I'd rather have a better age distribution

• But the main reasons for canceling my membership was that all walks were not accessible by public transport, I was dependent on fellow members to ride along. Far fewer buses run on Sundays than during the week in Brabant, what a difference with the Randstad! And I like my freedom to travel somewhere independently, no walking club in Brabant for me anymore.

But Then What? 

I rediscovered the NS walks in Brabant. The what? The walks that start and end at public transport in The Netherlands, usually at a station. There are 7 in the province of North Brabant. The shortest 10 km and longest 17 km. 

I Have Now Hiked Them All

There is a lot that I don't like about Brabant, but the walking areas is certainly not one of them. The hiking areas are diverse, beautiful and extensive. Good for getting lost and doing a few extra miles without noticing. I did all these walks in the spring and summer of 2018. Always with nice weather. I am also mainly a fair weather hiker.

Advantages of NS walks

The advantages of these NS walks are:

• I can get there by public transport both to the starting and end point

• I can shorten the routes if I want to! I will than miss all the beauty, because most of the beauty is in the middle of the route or on the whole route

• There is an extensive route description, I should not get lost. I did get lost, but never for long

• I get an insight into which nature reserves are interesting for a longer visit

• I feel more like walking more.

More Hikes

These walks have inspired me to also do NS walks in other provinces, but also to take up a new walking project in 2019. Walk the Pieterpad. The book for the first part has arrived. But first I will get through the autumn and winter with 8 walking routes in Eindhoven from a book and some walking on Curaçao.

COVID & Hikes

I finished the Pieterpad and hiked most of the ns routes and hiked all over Eindhoven, but there are lots of hikes left in The Netherlands and also in the world! Walking forever! Some of them I hiked during the first part of the COVID19-period. It was quiet and I had to get out of the way of other people to keep the 1,5 m distance rule. But everybody hiking was considered with each other and the measures.