Brom goes back to nature

Coocoo

After a long Tuesday in Rotterdam, we didn't want to go there again. Too many people and too much concrete and glass. And as Mara first had to get tested, so she could attend Wednesday's show, she had found a walk not too far from where she got tested.

We saw a lot of small empty crabs on the path.

Unfortunately the weather was really foul. A lot of rain came down as we drove to our starting point and Mara was debating returning home or just putting on her wet weather gear and walking anyway. I convinced her to the second. It was a bit different this time: no paper route, and no signs to follow, but an app showing you where you were on the route. It worked quite well and would give some more information along the way.

The bridge crosses the Oosterschelde.

We started in the small town of Zierikzee and from there made our way along the dyke. And after only a short distance, Mara took off her wet weather gear as the rain stopped. The further we walked, the more the clouds disappeared. We got a lovely view over the Zeeland bridge (5 km), which we had driven over earlier that day to get to the testing. 

One of the few boats we saw.

We got to a corner in the dyke and we turned off so we could see what it all said. There was a porpoise button we pushed, so we could check whether there were any porpoises nearby. But we only got white noise, so they were nowhere close. On we walked. The sun came out more and more. During our break Mara took the photo at the top. I was a bit scared, as I was on the diagonal bit of the dyke and if I would have fallen, I would have ended up very very very wet! 

Apart from wet, the water was probably quite cold as well, as the weather has not been that good lately and the Oosterschelde has an open link to the North Sea. It was very clear though, at least where we were.

One of the funnest things we saw were the geese. They were on the other side of the dyke where there was a nature reserve, but they were quite high up and you would see only their heads. But when Mara tried to take a better photo by walking a bit further, they would all disappear again. They were very camera shy!

The last thing I am showing you today (we were only halfway then) is not fun at all. Zeeland (the province) is used to water being all around. They have had to deal with floods during their whole existence. On the map today you can see names like 'the Drowned Land of Saeftinge' denoting where there would have been land once upon a time. The most recent flood happened in 1953 and covered most of Zeeland, parts of Zuid-Holland and Noord-Brabant, but also the Belgian region of Flanders and even the English east coast were hit severely. The photo is a small see-through plaque that shows what would have been in what is now the Oosterschelde. Once upon a time.

Tomorrow I will tell you what else we saw...