Intertidal Walk through the Waddensea, Netherlands
‘ At some point I looked back and saw people crawling through the mud, with their whole body in seawater. ‘
In Holland you have the Waddensea that is in between the Dutch Islands and the mainland. Because of the low and high tides you have the intertidal periods in a day that you can just walk across the Waddensea to one of the islands. This area is an UNESCO worldheritage site because of its richness on biological diversity and so it is a protected area. If you want a Healthy Trip in your Travel you should definitely take this one!!
Intertidal Walk through the Waddensea
I heard a lot about it but had never done that myself. Now finally I would go walk it too, it was a trip arranged by my work. With a whole busload of people we left for Holwerd, Friesland, where the starting point of this intertidal Waddensea walk is.
11K through the mud
The tour is about 11K and will take you approximately 3.5 hrs. It is a medium heavy tour and you need to have a good condition to take this tour. It can happen that the water is deep and you will experience more mud then another time. It all has to do with weatherconditions. When we were half way down the tour it got real deep and I went into the mud untill my knees and under seawater untill my waist. I felt my shoes getting sucked into the mud and while getting one foot out, the other one slipped in deeper. You can really get stuck in there and we needed to help eachother to get out again.
Dirty shoes – Intertidal Walk
With the first steps you feel uneasy, it feels really strange. You just get of the clean road and step into the dirt. With your nice and clean shoes right in to the dirty and stinky sea mud. At first you don’t sink in to much but at some point you start to feel your feet getting wet. After a while you feel some mud, you start to feel sand between your toes. And at some point you even feel little pieces of shell in your shoe. It is of importance that you put on shoes that close high around your ancle because that prefends a lot of mud and shells coming into your shoes. You have to walk for more then 3 hours and you can not sit down and get off your shoe to get it out.
It is Intertidal but You’ll get Dirty!
Untill your waist in the water
Some parts are deep, even in the Intertidal Part of the Day!
You of course get some hilaric moments standing there, stuck in the mud, but still I was scared to fall backwards or forward into the seawater and mud with my ruckzack on my back. I still had some clean and dry clothes in there. I did put them in a plastic bag ofcourse, but still you don’t want your bag to get totally wet and dirty.
Getting that full experience 🙂
Crawling in the mud – Intertidal Walk
I heard a lot of people talking about the fact that today was a heavier then other years. The water was deeper and we got into the mud deeper. Most of the times it wasn’t that deep! Well…you have experience everything once….and while your at it get an extreme day and get the full experience 😉
Loved the Intertidal Walk – Challenge
At the end of the walk there is a farm that provides watertaps to clean yourself and your shoes and clothes. There is a shared building/barn where you can change your clothes. Before you get there you need to walk for almost 2K to get there, but your walking through great landscapes!!
Tips
Do take some clean and dry clothes with you. You need to put them in another plastic bag in your rucksack. If you do fall, or need to crawl, the clothes are still dry when you get to the island.
Your camera and phone and other valuables that can’t stand water need to be in a plastic bag also. There is a big chance you get wet after all.
Along the way there are different stops. You need to use these to eat and drink something. It’s not just walking, you really need to work on getting there and therefor you use a lot of energy. You need to regularly fill this to prefend you hit the wall and are to low on energy. You’ll need that to get to the other side.
Nes – Ameland
Ameland is also a great small island to wander around. We entered the village of Nes and had something to drink and eat, what was really necessary! It is a lovely small fishermen’s village, great to walk around and shop.
If you liked this post you would make me happy too by sharing it!!
Do you want to know more about Holland? Read also:
Kinderdijk: Just like in the Postcards
Tulip Tour – The Netherlands (Self Drive)
Cycling along the Great Mills of Leiden
Rules about Smoking Weed in The Netherlands
Jacomijn is een politieagent uit Nederland die jou graag laat zien hoe je veilig, actief en gezond de wereld kan over reizen. Safe and Healthy travel is a MUST
Hi Hallary, thank you! Hope you get to do an intertidel walk soon!!
Hey Jacomijn, It is very remarkable place to visit and I wand to do “INTERTIDAL WALK” and much more fun.
it is my next visiting place in future plan.
and you share very informative tips at the end even they share only few but very valuable.
Thank you very much! I would love to try to walk this on your shoes 🙂
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