Sunday September 5 we finally made it. A mudflat hike from Holwerd to Ameland which was postponed for 2 times in a row (both September 2008 and September 2009) the hikes could not be made due to bad weather conditions. You probably wonder what makes this hike so special that bad weather ends up in postponing it for a year? Well you have to book a guide and they are very often fully booked. Especially in the popular weekends up to 600 people may want to cross.
The trip itself is so special as you walk from the main land of Holland to one of the islands in the Waddenzee. A sea that almost falls dry on low tide.
Here some background info of the Waddenzee (or "het Wad" as it is called in Holland):
The Wadden Sea is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tidal flats and wetlands. It is rich in biological diversity. In 2009, the Dutch and German parts of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.[1]
The Wadden Sea stretches from Den Helder in the Netherlands in the southwest, past the great river estuaries of Germany to its northern boundary at Skallingen north of Esbjerg in Denmark along a total length of some 500 km and a total area of about 10,000 km². Within the Netherlands it is bounded from the IJsselmeer by the Afsluitdijk.
The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands, named after the Frisians. However, on the westernmost Dutch island, Texel, the Frisian language has not been spoken for centuries. The Danish Wadden Sea Islands have never been inhabited by Frisians. The outlying German island of Heligoland, although ethnically one of the Frisian Islands, is not situated in the Wadden Sea.
The word wad is Dutch for "mud flat" (Low German and German: Watt, Danish: Vade). The area is typified by extensive tidal mud flats, deeper tidal trenches (tidal creeks) and the islands that are contained within this, a region continually contested by land and sea. The landscape has been formed for a great part by storm tides in the 10th to 14th centuries, overflowing and carrying away former peat land behind the coastal dunes. The present islands are a remnant of the former coastal dunes.
The islands are marked by dunes and wide, sandy beaches towards the North Sea and a low, tidal coast towards the Wadden Sea. The impact of waves and currents, carrying away sediments, is slowly changing the layout of the islands. For example, the islands of Vlieland and Ameland have moved eastwards through the centuries, having lost land on one side and grown on the other.
The Wadden Sea is famous for the rich flora and fauna, especially birds. Hundred of thousands of waders (shorebirds), ducks, and geese use the area as a migration stopover or wintering site, and it is also rich habitat for gulls and terns. Today, a great part of the Wadden Sea is protected in cooperation of all three countries; see Wadden Sea National Parks for the protected areas within the German borders.
The governments of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have been working together since 1978 on the protection and conservation of the Wadden Sea. Co-operation covers management, monitoring and research, as well as political matters. Furthermore, in 1982, a Joint Declaration on the Protection of the Wadden Sea was agreed upon to co-ordinate activities and measures for the protection of the Wadden Sea. In 1997, a Trilateral Wadden Sea Plan was adopted.
The Wadden Sea was designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance on May 14, 1987.
In June 2009, it was placed on the World Heritage list by UNESCO
Many of the islands have been popular seaside resorts since the 19th century. Mudflat hiking (Dutch: Wadlopen), i.e., walking on the sandy flats at low tide, has become popular in the Wadden Sea. It is also a popular region for pleasure boating.
Then now about the trip itself: Starting from Holwerd (a very tiny village) in the north of Holland, when the tide is getting low you can walk on the bottom of the sea and make a cross-over to Ameland (one of the islands of het Wad). The first part (about 2 km) through the heavy mud, which make your feet suck in it up till your ankles and then you have an easy walk of 8 km on the sandbanks of the sea. These sandbanks are separated by channels which have to be waded. During the wading the water may rise up till your waist (depends how tall you are J ) and this is also the reason that every participant has to carry a backpack with of course food and drinks but also a complete set of dry clothes. After almost 3 hours we reached the coast of Ameland where we took a short rest and then had to cross the island to the clean water of the Northsea. Here we were able to wash up and change our clothes.
At this point we could chose to let us ride to Nes (a town on Ameland) where the ferry to the main land leaves. However, I decided to make another walk on the beach and made another walk of 2 hours to Nes (with 2 stops for drinks at local bars, one at the seaside and one in Nes). About half an hour left to get the last ferry of the day. Good timing though!
My pictures can of course be found at: www.iamnotsimple.nl
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