Between willows and pollard trees: walking through an ancient river landscape

This walk unfolds among pollard trees, hay meadows, and ancient field roads. You step through the Dijle valley between Bonheiden and Rijmenam, where the landscape still whispers what it saw centuries ago: farmers pollarding oak trees for pea sticks, battles that devastated villages, and rivers that lost their course to the dikes. The uniqueness of this journey is that you walk through a living archive. The parcel structure, the donks, and the historical farms still lie as they do on the Ferraris map. The landscape here remains authentic, with no busy paths, but rather a mosaic of nature and heritage that invites you to pause. Along the way, you encounter stories: about the Hottentot farm and the Brughuizeke, about bunkers and bluethroats. You see how nature management with Galloway cattle shapes the landscape, and how ancient trees still remember what they were once pollarded for. For those who love silence, history, and biodiversity, this is a route that you traverse not only with your feet but also with your imagination.