Drenthe... this is forests, heath fields, canals, burial mounds, relatively many cobbled streets (instead of asphalt roads), radio telescopes, cobblestone tracks (flint), beautiful farms, brink villages, heath landscapes, the Hondsrug and the Col du VAM: all this can be encountered along this route.

The route begins at the minicamping site in De Kiel and proceeds in a clockwise direction.
First, you ride about six kilometers along the canal Borger Seitenkanal and then the Oranje Canal, and then you reach the museum village of Orvelte. After that, you head towards Mantinge, passing some nature reserves.
Then you come to Drijber and you already know it... Col du VAM is on the agenda. And on this route, that is the roof of Drenthe (the new section opened in 2024 up to 63 m above sea level). Of course, you can also add a local loop to experience the other sides of the Col du VAM.

Afterwards, you ride along the Linthorst Homankanaal and over quiet country roads into the village of Westerbork. You leave Westerbork heading north over some standalone bike paths and then dive into the Holmers-Halkenbroek, a swampy area between the forests of Grolloo and Hooghalen. You pass a viewing tower and 2 radio telescopes (the other 12 radio telescopes are located a bit further west at the former Westerbork camp).

The route then takes you into the Drentsche Aa National Park, a landscape of ash trees and ash villages, traversed by several streams. Finally, you leave the national park via Eext and Gieten and ride along the Hondsrug: a terminal moraine ridge with height differences of up to 15 meters.

You ride up and down the Hondsrug twice, the first time you also get a flint road for the bikes over more than 100 meters in length. After passing the nature reserve Drouwenerzand, you ascend the Hondsrug a second time (now with more height difference than the first time). You ride through the village of Drouwen and when leaving the village you pass a large burial mound that lies right at the roadside. After that, the route descends west of the N34 towards Borger and passes through Borger (the burial mound center of Drenthe). Over the Buinen-Schoonoord Canal, you ride back towards De Kiel.

The gastronomy directly along the route is located in Amen (after 57 km from the start), Loon (after 69 km), Oudemolen (after 75 km), Gasteren (after 78 km), Gieten (after 89 km) and Borger (after 103 km).

If you come from the south of the Netherlands, the parking lot of VAM Berg (south side) is an ideal starting point. You can then later leave the village of De Kiel on your left. The aforementioned gastronomy businesses are then 27 km earlier on the route than stated above. And you will encounter gastronomic establishments in Orvelte after 97 km.

Current (May 2024) photos along the route were taken by Hans Slegers.