Wooden shoes trails are fun! I liked the first wooden shoes trails so much that I have already chosen another one. In this blog, just a short description of the trail (a trail shortener 😉), a few photos and a simple sketch to illustrate. Nothing more. No need for a hiking map, the info on the website is clear enough.
This time I hiked the Vurensche Polder trail.
My experience
The starting point with information panel of the Vurensche Polder trail is in the town of Vuren, not far from Gorinchem in the Netherlands. I travel by public transport and get off at bus stop Molenlaan on the outskirts of the town. I do not enter the town itself, I walk straight in the opposite direction, because there is a trail change: part of the original trail along Fort Vuren and the Waal river is closed due to works on the dike. The Klompenpaden app, the trail map on the website and the markings have been temporarily adjusted to reflect this change. Despite the change, the trail is still 15 km long. You can, however, follow a smaller trail of 6 km through only the Linge forest. This is marked as such on the trail.
I dive straight into the polder and I cross a dirt track between trees and bushes. I then turn left on a polder road. At a beautiful farmhouse at the end of the road, I turn right. Further on, I turn right again and then the fun begins: a grass path straight through the polders. The grassy path turns into the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie line dike with a bunker here and there. Halfway down the dike is a pond with a concrete path to a nice idyllic picnic spot. After the dike, I continue for a short distance on grass paths and past an orchard.
Trail guide about wooden shoes trails
Then follows a boring and long stretch of straight road towards the Linge forest, which unfortunately is a back-and-forth track to get back to Vuren later in the day (so 2x the same road). At the edge of the Linge forest on Haarweg, the short 6 km trail starts. Here is also a car park. The Linge forest makes up for the boring part of the trail. I walk along winding forest paths past deciduous trees with budding foliage, along the recreational lake and past many pollard willows.
I cross a small bridge and walk along the Leuvensche Achtervliet, where waterbirds, the nightingale and the kingfisher make their home. It is still too early in the year for nightingales (it is March now, I have to wait a month for that) and I have not been able to spot a kingfisher in the form of a blue flash either. There are plenty of waterbirds, though.
At Broekse Sluis, I walk up the dike near the tiny hamlet with the name Vogelswerf. On the other side of the dike is the Linge river. From this point you can follow a marked transfer trail to another wooden shoes trail called Rhenoijsche trail (personally one of my favourite wooden shoes trails so far, here you can find a short report about this trail). The transfer trail is a whopping 7 km, an excellent opportunity for kilometre-eaters to link two wooden shoe trails.
After a bit on the dike and on paved polder roads, I am allowed to cross the Linge forest once more and not much later I am back at the ‘entrance’ of the forest. Now comes the long way back to the town of Vuren. This part makes the trail a lot less fun and I didn’t take any more photos from this point.
The photos
Final thoughts
The Vurensche Polder trail is a fine hike through the polder and (recreational) forest. Only the part on the Line dike and a bit near the Leuvensche Achtervliet is unpaved. So if you don’t like paved roads, this is not the trail for you. I really enjoyed it myself. A pity, though, that I had to cross the same boring road twice to follow the trail. And unfortunately, the part near Fort Vuren (where the path derives its name from) and along the Waal river is temporarily inaccessible. I am convinced the trail would get a four star rating from me then.
Tip: At the ‘entrance’ to the Lingeforest is an information panel of TOP Rivierenland (tourist transfer point) with more trails, also long distance trail 17 Waterline trail goes over the same Line dike.
More info:
Trail: Wooden shoes trail Vurensche Polder trailWhere: Vuren, Gelderland, the Netherlands.
No. of km: 15 km
Hiking date: 21 March 2022
Materials used in illustration: little sketch with graphite pencil
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
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More wooden shoes trails
I have hiked two wooden shoes trails before. Read below my experience with the Benedeneindse trail and the Duck decoy trail.
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