The driver had followed his satnav and so ended up driving into the nature reserve, along a 100-metre boardwalk meant only for walkers and cyclists. Halfway along, the wooden planks gave way under the motorhome, leaving it stuck.
The motorhome could not simply be pulled out with a tractor, because the peat around the path is a fragile nature area and no oil or other substances from the vehicle could be allowed to get into it. It is also the breeding season, when work in nature areas normally stops.
Staatsbosbeheer, which owns the path, called in a contractor. First the broken planks were removed and the holes covered with OSB boards, with road plates then laid over them. After that the motorhome was jacked up until it was level again and slowly reversed off the path, after which the owner was able to drive it home.
Staatsbosbeheer received some three hundred emails and phone calls with ideas for freeing the motorhome, for example with lifting bags or draught horses. The most frequent suggestion was a Chinook helicopter, but that would have disturbed nature too much. Some contractors turned up of their own accord with road plates, and contractors who wanted to help also contacted the municipality of Aa en Hunze. Because all the calls and emails left the forest rangers hardly any time for their own work, Staatsbosbeheer asked people to stop sending tips.
The boardwalk’s foundations are undamaged, so only the broken planks need to be replaced. When that will happen is not yet known. Until then the path stays closed and Recreatieschap Drenthe, the regional recreation board, suggests other routes. After that the path will close once more, this year or early in 2027, for a major renovation that had already been planned.