Exploring the forests and history of Drenthe

The weather has once again turned nice, and that means getting out and about. Today, we ran up to the Drenthe province, around Assen and Borger, just south of Groningen, to go look at some ancient Dutch history.


The majority of the Netherlands is flat as a pancake, as it is primarily the delta of the Rhine. However, contributing to the flatness was the ice age glaciation of some 180,000 years ago. Just like at home, this left some rocks (more precisely, glacial erratics) scattered around. But you never see rocks here.


About 4,000 BC, and for about 2,000 years, the area was populated by stone age tribes. Over their time there, they were moving from being hunting/gatherers to existing as stationary farmers. They didn't leave much behind, but they did leave megaliths. A great example of a megalith is Stonehenge. A megalith is a really big thing built out of really big stones.


The folks here built something the locals call "hunnebeden." What they were isn't really clear; they could have been houses, but they were probably burial tombs. What they really are is amazing, because they are made of 20,000 pound glacial erratic rocks carefully balanced on one another.

Note KC crouching to take a picture

Okay, so first question: How'd they do that? The engineer in me says rollers made of wood and levers, but that seems around 3,700 years before Archimedes claimed to have come up with that lever idea.


And there is not just one of these things, but 54 of them (explaining why all the rocks are gone), and we got to see about 12 of them while bicycling around the area.

Trusty rent-a-steed

Some are small and cave like and sitting on the top of a mound.

Only a small shelter now

Some are big, and have massive rocks that look like elephants and whales...

See the "elephant rock"? Me neither until someone pointed it out

...if you believe Gandalf the Red, who was handing out free info on them.

A very nice, very helpful, but strange old codger

Some come in bunches...

This is 2 of 5 in the grouping 

A pair

Some rocks are precariously balanced.

Remember, the top one weights several tons

They found pottery and stone tools inside some.

Stone axe heads 

Reassembled pottery from the "Funnel Beaker Culture"

So they are kinda cool, and we enjoyed seeing them. But just as much, we enjoyed riding around the countryside, which is really nice up there. The forests are dense and littered with paved bike paths and walking paths in the woods.

Straight, smooth, flat and paved

A hiking/riding trail. Arrow straight, like many

There are little lakes periodically, full of croaking frogs and the odd duck or two.

A very peaceful little lake just off the highway

The boys are chasing the girl (as always)

And it smelled just wonderful in the forests, in fact just like the mountains where I live. Okay, so mostly the forest is a re-forest, with the trees in rather neat rows, and there's evidence of logging here or there. But it was full of birds and just really pleasant riding. It would be a great area to explore more.


Tomorrow: Middelburg and the dams that keep the sea out of the land.