Eleven days

The island of Schokland, the island in the land

It's been eleven days since I last wrote a post. Or you could say it was twelve, as the last post was pre-posted. However, it has been too long. But, not much is happening. I work, I walk. Not at the same time obviously, although I do get some meters done at work as well. 

The remains of the old church, already abandoned while
there were still people on the island. Now it's a grave site.

Last week's outing was supposed to be a field trip. Literally. But, the weather being what it was and me not feeling too comfortable driving onto somebody's land and then parking there, led me to a different walk not too far from that. A few months ago I was there as well and walked the northern tip, this time around I did the southern tip.

Look closely and you can see two medieval dikes (one left, one right).
As time passed, they were slowly covered by the Suydersee.

It's the island in the land and this time I didn't just walk the island itself, but also the remains of medieval dikes, which wasn't always that easy with the wet clay. I stayed upright though and managed to come home more or less clean.

Then on Wednesday I did a walk I had been wanting to do for a few weeks now. Ever since I first saw it. It was called Wolves Track and had some features that looked to be fun. I was not disappointed at all.

Can you find the paw print?
The path basically wound between the trees.

The track was guided by paw prints on rocks and trees, although at one point I couldn't see a single one and had to guess. I took the right guess as well, which was great. Mind you, it did lead me onto a path that was not too much for the non-nimble, as you had to climb over tree trunks that were just hanging and laying in the path. Great fun though.

Yes, this was the right path!

As this was a wood again, it was great to see how this one differed yet again from the others I have been to. This seemed much more open again and there were a few larger areas of really open land which were basically swampy. I crossed those swampy bits by boardwalk. 

Apparently it had been quite wet recently as there were some areas that were just mud. Upturned by animals (I saw some tracks and poo: roe deer perhaps?) and people alike, it was really tricky to navigate, but yet again, I managed to cross without any mishaps. 

I was so NOT getting under the boardwalk!

Apart from some small birds, I didn't see a single living thing. No humans and no animals. Which led me to believe that the call of nature could be answered without fear of being spotted (by humans at least). Fortunately the belief was right as being caught with your trousers round your ankles...

Anyway, since then, I have been walking a bit more on the inbetween days as well. Not the distances of the proper 'hikes', but shorter, easier and definitely cleaner walks. These are mainly to get my average speed up, which is still fairly low. Even if during my Wolves Track walk I apparently had a kilometer where my average was up to 7,2 km/h. 

I wrote this on Facebook as well: I never get up to 7,2 km/h, not even when chased by a pack of vicious dogs. My maximum on a good, even road is about 5,4 km/h. On a muddy, slippery, winding path where I have to duck tree roots and branches: not a chance!

So, this is all again for now. This weekend is work weekend, and even though on Sunday I don't start until quite late in the day, I don't know whether I will get out for a hiking walk or just a simple walk. I will keep you posted though...