 This huge area of sand behind me is called the Lommel Sahara and you can see why It really looks like a little desert in the heart of Belgium. It's a really crazy landscape I'm Lavi and this is Olli. Over the past four years we have been on some epic adventures around the world Now after converting an old van into our new home on wheels We are ready to hit the road and explore the wonders of Europe Click the subscribe button to follow our journey and let the adventure begin. Good morning. Welcome to Odyssey Good morning So we are here parked up this morning next to the town of Lommel in northern Belgium about a few kilometers from their border to the Netherlands and We're here to see a unique landscape Something which you really wouldn't expect in mainland Europe, but we're gonna have our breakfast first We're gonna have a coffee and then we'll get going The summer is back. I just want to show you a quick where we camped last night. It was a very quiet and beautiful night It's an amazing spot here as well directly here on the canal and The sun is just coming out It's a very beautiful morning Beautiful spot. I love spots like this Open nice spots next to a forest next to a canal Can't ask for more. It's rock and roll. This is really nice here in this area. It's got This beautiful beach forest and some pine forest around and all these little Sort of marshes and lakes Sort of intertwined in between the forest it's a really nice landscape and And you can hear a lot of bird life around So it seems to be Really nice nature here Yeah, this morning we saw already one eagle. We think it was an eagle and yesterday we saw a deer Yeah, so this place is pretty pretty good for wildlife already Yeah, you can see here's one protected area where you can't go and you hear snakes and some rare birds and Some lizards as well. So people are not allowed to go here Yeah, so it's actually really cool when you see parts of the forest which have been fenced up To stop people going you can see that that's that means the local authority really do care about conservation and trying to make Sustainable habitats for those animals. So that's really nice So this area is already Really beautiful in its own right just with all the beautiful forest and lakes But this is actually not the main reason why people come to this place They come to this place for this Area of sand behind me is called the Lommel Sahara and you can see why It really looks like a little desert in the heart of Belgium It's a really crazy landscape. This place wasn't always like this This is actually a tragic story of pollution There was actually a huge nickel mine nearby and the polluted water caused the destruction of all the vegetation in the area You can still see to this day how barren the landscape is. That's the result of pollution So this beautiful place Is actually formed from destruction Now a lot of effort is being made to restore the habitat around they've planted trees all in the surrounding area and It really looks like they're trying to get this place back on track But for the time being until it's fully restored We can really enjoy this unique landscape and imagine that we're in the middle of the Sahara desert Okay, so we're on our way back now, but There's one last really really cool thing that you can see here in this park and this is it How high it is, but it looks high and we're gonna climb it now It's actually semi-sea through So Yeah, it's not the coolest for me, but I'm gonna persevere anyway You're so brave and it's so windy as well. Oh my god. Yeah, it is a little bit of nature here in northern Belgium Yeah, it was an absolutely amazing place to visit. We really loved it. It's very very nice very Very cool place to see you. Yeah, exactly with all the lakes and forests around It's just really nice to get out there and just yeah see this beautiful place Mm-hmm, and the Sahara is certainly a really unique landscape I know that the formation of it is quite a sad story but you know we can enjoy it for what it is now and We can be hopeful for the future of it because they are working really hard to restore the area, so Yeah, all in all an amazing visit Absolutely amazing So that's it for today's episode. We're gonna cook up some lunch now We really hope you enjoyed this episode if you did, please give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to the channel We'll see you next time. If you enjoyed watching this video, you would help us a lot by subscribing to the channel by clicking here Thanks so much for watching guys. We will see you next time