Altweerterheide - purple - 8,1 km

This route is also known as the Bolle Jan route. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the landscape consisted of heathland, ponds, and woodland, sometimes dry, but more often wet. In 1911, a grain trader named Jan Henderiks, better known as Bolle Jan, bought a piece of land of 80 hectares where the farm was built. This farm was the first house of the later village Altweerterheide.

In the Middle Ages, the poor sandy soils in the area were sometimes used too intensively due to repeated logging, turf cutting, and grazing by cattle. Even heathland no longer wanted to grow there at that time. Bare sand remained and began to drift under the influence of the wind. The drifting sand posed a threat to the surroundings and was controlled by planting, among other things, oak coppices. Nowadays, the Tungelerwallen consists of a mixture of coniferous woodland, gnarled oaks, and open sand. It is precisely the open sand that offers many special features, such as Iceland moss, bee wolf, and antlion, all species perfectly adapted to extreme dryness and temperature fluctuations.