Mudwalking in Holland
Or as the locals call it "Wadlopen", was what we did last Friday as a team even, far from the dreary workshop sessions or team building exercises in which five people make a clay pot.
The Team: Led by their courageous leader (Raoul-spot him), the team arrived at the ferry's parking lot all set, spirits high and the sun shining (a rarity in this country)
though wadlopen is traditionally done by folks wearing short shorts and have hagged beards, this team was different
The Definition: (source: http://home.wxs.nl/~chrsovdv/wadloop7.html)
The prerequisite for wadlopen is a shallow sea, that dries sufficiently at every low tide to allow crossing it by foot during a few short hours before and after low tide. Also the difference in height between high and low tide must be sufficiently great. Such conditions prevail in the Waddensea, stretching from Den Helder in the Netherlands to Esbjerg in Denmark (and even further), though there are probably many more regions on earth with similar conditions. (E.g. in Cape Cod Bay) The terrain between the mainland and the string of islands before the coast consists mainly of sands, though sometimes, especially in places where there is not a lot of current, the Waddensea can be quite muddy.
On this map of part of the Waddensea in the north of the Netherlands the parts drying at low tide are marked in light brown. Thus you can reach the islands of Ameland en Schiermonnikoog with dry feet (well, almost) whereas the island of Borkum is always separated from the mainland by the sea. The distance between the mainland and the islands is about 10 km or 6 miles thus allowing the walker to reach the islands in about 3 hours.
We walked to the island of Schiermonnikoog after being dropped off at the edge of the receded sea by a boat.
The landing party
ofcourse some of us found it hard to leave our cell phones behind..in case their french hair stylist called! :P
The Equipment:
The Team: Led by their courageous leader (Raoul-spot him), the team arrived at the ferry's parking lot all set, spirits high and the sun shining (a rarity in this country)
though wadlopen is traditionally done by folks wearing short shorts and have hagged beards, this team was different
The Definition: (source: http://home.wxs.nl/~chrsovdv/wadloop7.html)
The prerequisite for wadlopen is a shallow sea, that dries sufficiently at every low tide to allow crossing it by foot during a few short hours before and after low tide. Also the difference in height between high and low tide must be sufficiently great. Such conditions prevail in the Waddensea, stretching from Den Helder in the Netherlands to Esbjerg in Denmark (and even further), though there are probably many more regions on earth with similar conditions. (E.g. in Cape Cod Bay) The terrain between the mainland and the string of islands before the coast consists mainly of sands, though sometimes, especially in places where there is not a lot of current, the Waddensea can be quite muddy.
On this map of part of the Waddensea in the north of the Netherlands the parts drying at low tide are marked in light brown. Thus you can reach the islands of Ameland en Schiermonnikoog with dry feet (well, almost) whereas the island of Borkum is always separated from the mainland by the sea. The distance between the mainland and the islands is about 10 km or 6 miles thus allowing the walker to reach the islands in about 3 hours.
We walked to the island of Schiermonnikoog after being dropped off at the edge of the receded sea by a boat.
The landing party
ofcourse some of us found it hard to leave our cell phones behind..in case their french hair stylist called! :P
The Equipment:
It is compulsary to wear "basketball" type shoes. This is important as it ensures that when the shoes dig into the mud, then dont stay their as your ankle slips out. Ofcourse some of us (like me), got cool black shoes (5.95 euros) while some others went for dorky red/white shoes!
and then we walked for a long time (3 hours). At times the mud was hard, like the sand on the beach compacted by wet water and in some cases the mud was slushy and guey and the feet actually sank into the mud and perhaps sliding on the mud was easier.
The funnest part of the walk was the channels, "streams" of water, and walking through them, the water came upto the hips. We also went for a short swim in one of those channels and the water was nice and warm! definitely awesome...
Hitting dry land at the end of the walk was really nice. However we had to overcome one last hurdle before we got ashore dry. To tread over the electric wires at the ends of the dijks. The Dutch have traditionally kept sheep on the dijks to make sure that they eat plants and weeks, etc, which could make the soil on the dijks loose. neat huh!
went to a village, had lots of bitterbollens (refer here), beer and dinner and took the ferry home!
Watch the water come in over the area where we walked in the pic above!
fun
-Ash
and then we walked for a long time (3 hours). At times the mud was hard, like the sand on the beach compacted by wet water and in some cases the mud was slushy and guey and the feet actually sank into the mud and perhaps sliding on the mud was easier.
The funnest part of the walk was the channels, "streams" of water, and walking through them, the water came upto the hips. We also went for a short swim in one of those channels and the water was nice and warm! definitely awesome...
Hitting dry land at the end of the walk was really nice. However we had to overcome one last hurdle before we got ashore dry. To tread over the electric wires at the ends of the dijks. The Dutch have traditionally kept sheep on the dijks to make sure that they eat plants and weeks, etc, which could make the soil on the dijks loose. neat huh!
went to a village, had lots of bitterbollens (refer here), beer and dinner and took the ferry home!
Watch the water come in over the area where we walked in the pic above!
fun
-Ash
posted by Ash | 11:42 AM
1 Comments:
Thank you for using part of my English discription op "Wadlopen". The snack you enjoyed so much on the island is of course called "Bitterballen" , not bitter at all, but formed from soaked bread with veal and deep fried in hot oil. Christopher
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