De Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide Natural Park

On the border between Holland and Belgium there is one of the natural beauties of both countries, a natural park De Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide, a merger of cognominal conservations. Being the combination of two physical zones, one might observe different landscapes within an area of 37,5 square kilometers: wastelands, dunes, forests, meadows and marshes. In Belgium, De Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide has a great ecological, cultural and historical significance for the country and is a subject of strict protection.
As a tourist attraction for nature-lovers it has great opportunities of footpaths; in particular, the park administration offers ten different routes, where you can observe marvelous scenery of dunes, field and forest sites in combination with local animal settlements. Local views can be preferred by only those ones, who are real connoisseurs of natural values; the others may find all the diversity of local landscape banal and boring. Despite this common impression, there are still a lot to look at. Dry and swampy areas are covered with the splendor of purple heather spill and the entire park is considered a kind of bird kingdom, among which there are representatives of such exotic species as a black swan and an Egyptian goose. It is also important to know that there are some privately owned areas within a park, which also are a subject of severe control of conservation's authority. That is why sidewalks in the De-Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide is only arranged in permitted areas and getting away with such a track is considered as a crime.
To look at the sights of a Border Park in a cost of 1,5 euro, tourist should take a cycling ride. The total length of this route is 32 km, which is made in a form of a loop around the park area with certain parking spots and places of the most spectacular scenery. As an alternative, a bridle path is also at your disposal.
Being under cooperative responsibility this park also has social and ecological significance as far as many collaborative programmes target fading habitat of the park. Among their short-term goals there are increases of species and environment improvement, which will alert an attention of a bigger number of tourists. Sometimes De Zoom - Kalmthoutse Heide is said to be a lost kingdom of nature, living by its own laws, and efforts of the two neighboring countries are aimed on that no one would violate local traditions.