Swartbroek - De Pelen - red - 11,1 km

You also hike through the rural surroundings of Swartbroek with its vistas and along the Tungelroyse Beek with its Ellerschans. Scattered along the route, you will see many bulbous fields. These are higher in the middle than at the edges and were created in the Middle Ages by plowing from the outside inward. Swartbroek is a church village that is part of the municipality of Weert. The Krang, a large nature area surrounding the village, serves as a breeding and resting place for many birds. The area is intersected in the north by the Leuker beek and in the south by the Tungelroysebeek. Due to differences in height and moisture, many different species of plants and animals can be found here. The humid, flower-rich grasslands provide habitat for many species of butterflies. The area consists of several depressions containing peelvennen or pelen between higher sand ridges on which, among other things, the village of Swartbroek was founded. Peelvennen or pelen, a term used only in the Weert region, are dish-shaped depressions that formed in warmer periods during the Holocene in the cover sand landscape due to runoff meltwater. The pelen, including the Roukespeel, Moeselpeel, the Kootspeel, the Roeventerpeel, the Sarven, and the Banen, lie southeast of Weert and Nederweert. Later, the Leukerbeek was dug through these peelvennen to drain and cultivate them.