Veluwe hotels

The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts. The Veluwe is the largest lateral moraine in the Netherlands, stretching 60 km from north to south, and reaching heights of up to 110 meters. The Veluwe was formed by the Saalian glacial during the Pleistocene epoch, some 200,000 years ago. Glaciers some 200 meters thick pushed the sand deposits in the Rhine and Maas Delta sideways, creating the hills which now form most of the Veluwe. Because the hills are made of sand, rain water disappears rapidly, and then it flows at a depth of tens of meters to the edges where it reaches the surface again.

Originally the Veluwe was surrounded by a string of swamps, very popular with game such as deer and wild boars because these areas offered rich vegetation to feed on. Since the 1990s many plans are underway, or have already been implimented, to restore these wetlands by blocking the drainage systems built by farmers during the last 150 years. This results in very dry heathland changing into wetland within a span of just a few hundred meters. The Wisselse Veen near the village of Epe, on the North West Veluwe, offers a good example of this.

In the center of the southern Veluwe lies a national park, the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe, measuring around 50 square kilometers in area, just five percent of the whole Veluwe. Although the park is relatively small, it blocks the passage of long-distance walkers and game, because it is surrounded by high fences. The fences are needed because De Hoge Veluwe is the only part of the Veluwe with an admission charge. Farther to the east there is a second national park, called the Veluwezoom, also measuring some 50 square kilometers, which is not fenced in and freely accessible. There are plans to turn the entire Veluwe - the largest lowland nature area in Northwestern Europe - into one large national park.

Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia

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