Wooden shoes trail: Overlangbroek trail – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wooden shoes trails are fun and always a surprise! This blog post contains a brief description of the trail (a trail shortcut 😉), a few photos and a simple sketch to illustrate. No need for a hiking map, the info on the website is clear enough.

This time a report on the Overlangbroek trail.

My experience

It is still dark in Leersum as I walk towards the starting point of the Overlangsbroek trail. On the horizon, I can see the Nelletsteyn tomb looming. After a long flight of steps down, I reach the starting point, but I’m still not starting the wooden shoes trail just yet. First, I want to do a loop along the Breeveen Storm path. This is a boardwalk built on the spot where, in 2021, a downburst blew a whole section of woodland flat. The devastated section of woodland has been left as it is, and the boardwalk has been built around and over it. After this unique path, I take a self-chosen, but very pleasant and narrow path back to the wooden shoes trail.

The Overlangbroek trail is an 11-kilometre one-way hike (meaning you won’t end up back where you started) from Leersum to Wijk bij Duurstede (or vice versa), in the Netherlands. If you’d prefer a circular hike, you can combine it with the Gerrit Achterberg trail, but that will make the trail over 20 km. I hiked the Gerrit Achterberg trail about a year ago and wrote a report on it.

Tip: from the car park at the starting point, you’ll need to walk along a busy cycle path. You can head left through a fence into the woods. This path veers slightly off the trail, but is a more pleasant hike. It ends up at Restaurant Darthuizen. If you walk back to the roundabout, you’ll be back on the trail.

I leave Leersum behind me and walk along a beautiful beech-lined avenue in its autumnal splendour. I’ve already come across plenty of mushrooms here. Then I reach the entrance gate to the Broekhuizen Estate. I’ve been here twice before. The first time was on the Migration birds trail between Langbroek and Amerongen, which I wrote a blog post about. And another time that I didn’t blog about. Both times were in the spring.

Trail guide about wooden shoe trails

The 1 km trail extension takes you through the Broekhuizen Estate. It’s quite a different path from the previous two times. This little loop is really worth the effort, especially as I come across lots of mushrooms too, such as the well-known fly agaric.

I leave the estate and walk along paved roads beside the Langbroekerwetering canal, and past poplars that are also beginning to change colour. A little further on, the path becomes unpaved again and I walk along the edge of the woods and fields. I expect to find more mushrooms, but there aren’t many out here.

As I cross the road, I spot the transfer with the Gerrit Achterberg trail. I walk along a muddy track through dense wooded marshlands, which merges directly with the Gerrit Achterberg trail. Later, I realise that this track isn’t part of the Overlangbroek trail; I must have missed a marking.

In Wijk bij Duurstede, the Overlangbroek trail is exactly the same as the Gerrit Achterberg trail. As I’ve seen this section before, I decide to skip it and look for the nearest bus stop.

The photos

Final thoughts

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