Bergerbos – Loslopen.net

Bergerbos is a lovely mixture of dunes and forest and is on the edge of the popular tourist town, Bergen. A huge part of the park allows your dog to roam off leash pretty much all year round, the only exception is during the bird breeding season which is 15 March to 15 June when you must leash your dog everywhere.

When you first walk into the park from the parking space, turn right and go a little way until you see a set of wooden stairs. You can walk around these to the right and meet up with the top of the stairs if you want to but you will come next to the road, but after just a few minutes the pathway kind of stops and suddenly opens up to a wonderful expanse of white dunes From this point onwards, you can simply follow the fence around the park. If you want to explore a little more then you can walk through the middle of the park along the labyrinth of little pathways, which seem to get narrower and more untended the further into the middle you go.

At one point, I believe along the Jan Willemlaan, you will come across a canal that runs through the park. There are several crossings over this canal and your dog can easily access the water here, and in some spots you can walk along the canal and breathe in some lovely cool damp air.

The dense forest in the middle provides plenty of shade on a hot day, but in winter when it has rained a lot then these can get pretty muddy and in some areas, large pools of water will collect.

The dog park is adjacent to another dune area where dogs must be leashed all year round and if, for some reason, your dog is not powered out in the extensive off leash area, then you can always hook him up and walk the leash-only areas. This leash only area is just after you walk into the sandy dune area, to the right. It is clearly marked with signposts and a kind of wooden barrier, there is no chance of you walking into it by mistake!

There are some frequently used horse paths along the side of this park and mostly they are well separated by shrubs or trees but in some cases the path you are following may cross over the horse path. If you find yourself somehow stuck on the wrong side of the horse path, don’t worry, there are several spots along the way where you can easily hop over.

This is quite a busy park, and very popular with tourists walking the dune trails. However as it is such an extensive area, you do not often meet other walkers on the same pathway. Even if you do, there are plenty of little side paths that you can slip into to make space for each other.

Parking is free at the restaurant Duinvermaak (Breelaan 132, 1861GH Bergen), and the entrance to the park is on the opposite end of the car park. Incidentally, the Duinvermaak has a decent sized, dog-friendly terrace should you fancy a snack or a drink after your walk.

Although the car park is pretty large, it can get very busy. You have people parking for the restaurant, for the park and also for the Skiclub all in this one car park. In summer it is particularly busy – it is not uncommon to have to wait for someone to leave and a couple of times I have been here, the car park was completely full and I had to drive elsewhere for my walk. Best to avoid lunchtimes in the high tourist season.

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