Where oh Where Wednesday: Mechelse Heide

About 20 minutes drive from our house is a nature park called “Mechelse heide” or the “Mechels heath”. It is nestled between the little towns of As and the bigger town of Maasmechelen and is part of the National Park in the area. It is 700 hectares of lightly wooded, sandy ground covered in heather. 

All sorts of birds, snakes, butterflies and grasshoppers make the area special and a desired place to take a walk. In the right season (right about now) the heath colors purple and the sunsets and sunrises make for amazing picture opportunities. And all of this within shouting distance of a large area for gravel mining. 

Every time we drive to Antwerp we drive past this swath of nature as the highway cuts through, with two vast sections on each side. We have often visited for a walk with friends.and members of the church. One of my fondest memories of a dear sister in the past was walking through this heather not long before her passing away. Other memories include running the sand paths between the heather with our boys when they were young. Not far from the heather is a special "bare foot walking path" where you can walk through all sorts of natural areas in your bare feet.