Along the Meuse #7

Morning walk along the river Maas. The horizon colors with the first light even before the sun rises. The Maas and the Maasheggen area around Cuijk is a beautiful walking area. The Maasheggen are a landscape and a chain of nature reserves on the river Maas between the Noord-Brabant village of Vierlingsbeek and the Gelderland village of Batenburg. Characteristic of the Maasheggen is that the landscape is divided into a large number of small parcels separated by hawthorn and blackthorn hedges. The hawthorn bushes are sawn in half and guided to the side, so that the bushes grow into each other (this is called 'laying down'). Where it has been sawn, new branches grow so that a very dense hedge is created. Because the hedges are so tightly woven into each other, they form an impenetrable barrier. They serve mainly as a field divider and cattle barrier, but also keep out predators. Every time the floodplains are flooded the hedges help to catch silt; when the water recedes the silt stays behind making the soil in the area very fertile. The Maashedges are located in Brabant in the forelands of the river Maas near the villages of Vierlingsbeek, Boxmeer and Oeffelt. The ancient landscape is unique in Western Europe and the Maasheggen form a special ecosystem where a number of rare plant and animal species can be found, for example badgers and the dense hedges also form an excellent breeding ground for many birds.