The Manteling: a nature hike & picknick »

The province of Zealand, in the Netherlands, has some beautiful places where you can enjoy couple of hours. One example is nature reserve the Manteling, located on the island of Walcheren. It’s actually one of my favorite places to go hiking. Here you can find forest, beach (dunes) and an impressive castle. In this article, I’ll take you with me to our visit to the Manteling, where we combined a picknick with a nice hike through the nature reserve.

Picking up our picknick

Before we went to Zealand, we searched around a bit for must visits and must do’s. During our search, we found the website of farm shop Bioduin, located in Koudekerke. This is a shop for freshly grown organic fruit and vegetables, but also a shop where you can get picknic baskets with some fresh products.

We decided to order a picnic basket and picked it up before we went to the Manteling. The picnic basket costs € 32,- for two persons and is easy to bring with you in, for example, a cycle bag. You don’t have to bring stuff back as it’s all organic and you can just throw it in the trash afterwards. You’ll only need to take care of a picnic rug. We were by car so that’s of course also a way to easily take the picnic basket.

In the picknic basket, you can find the following items:

some fresh bread
cheese, self-made jam, meats and a spread

fruit juice and a can of soda
a bowl of fruit
a bowl of vegetables salad

biologically degradable plates, cutlery and cups

Arrival at the Manteling and having the picknick

After picking up the picknick, we drover further towards the Manteling. We parked our car at the parking place of Randduin (Oostkapelle – Strandweg 1) and went walking around the forest of the Manteling, searching for a perfect picnic place. There weren’t many picnic tables (on the other side of the Manteling, close to the castle, there are some more tables), but we found a nice spot where we could enjoy our picnic lunch. The spot was somewhere around Berkenbosch.

Walking around the Manteling

After our picnic, we walked a long time around the Manteling. From Berkenbosch we went to Westhove and walked around the castle, were you can find an accommodation (Stayokay) nowadays. Along the small waters, we walked out of the forest and to the coastline with its dunes and beaches. We walked from Zichtdal to Hamster and then back to Randduin, where we parked our car. It such a beautiful nature reserve with much diversity!

You can combine your visit to the Manteling with a beach day. You can even book a stay at a bungalow park, camping or hotel near the Manteling to get the most out of your visit. In that way, you can also combine the Manteling together with nature reserve Oranjezon, which is located next to the Manteling.

When traveling to Zealand, I can definitely recommend a visit to nature reserve the Manteling. Have you ever been?

Author: Tamara