Information about the other reserves in the Campine is rather vague, nevertheless we decide to try to find them. I think we did actually find one reserve, the Ronde Put, near Postel, but there are no signs to say that it exists there, no obvious parking place or information boards, and the only sign of public access is a waymarked path with no indication of where it is going to. Not very satisfactory. The information board at a carpark in Postel itself was no help either. In fact, we are rapidly coming to the conclusion that the information we have gathered before leaving Britain is a useful guide, but it cannot all be relied upon. (and I expect some of the information in this diary will be out of date when somebody else tries to use it).
Further exploration reveals only farmland and woods with tracks marked 'no entry'. Eventually at a place called Ravels, we discover a state forest (Staatsbos). It consists of mixed plantation, with picnic areas, parking space, footpath and toilets provided.
Rain threatens a few times but we manage to walk for a couple of hours around and between blocks of trees ‑ red oak, pedunculate oak, sweet chestnut, beech, scots pine, larch, and other conifers. There does not seem to be much in the way of birdlife ‑ great‑spotted woodpecker, nuthatches, goldcrests, tits, chaffinches, robins, wrens etc.
In the evening we head west along the Dutch border towards the reserve at Zwin near Brugges. On the way a barn owl flies across the road ahead, the yellow motorway lights illuminating its bat-like flight.
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