Mudflat hiking (Wadlopen)
Mudflat hiking (Dutch: Wadlopen, German: Wattwandern, Dansk: Vadevandring) is a recreation enjoyed by Dutch, Germans, Danes, and others in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and in Denmark. Mudflat hikers are people who, with the aid of a tide table, use a period of low water to walk and wade on the watershed of the mudflats, especially from the Frisian mainland coast to the Frisian islands.
The Wadden Sea, a belt of the North Sea, is well suited to this traditional practice. Belts of this shallow sea lie off the mainland of the Netherlands, between the Provinces of Friesland and Groningen and the Frisian Islands; off the coast of Germany; and off the coast of southwest Jutland in Denmark.
The bottom of the sea at low tide
Lutjewad, sandbank near the village Lauwersoog. Lutjewad lies in the Wadden Sea between the mainland of the Province Groningen in northern Netherlands and the wadden island Schiermonnikoog.
The Wadden Sea (Dutch: Waddenzee, German: Wattenmeer, Danish: Vadehavet) 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. 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. 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. The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands.
The word wad is Dutch for "mud flat". 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 Wadden Sea is famous for its 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.
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All rights reserved. Copyright © Martien Uiterweerd. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.
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.
Mudflat hiking (Wadlopen)
Mudflat hiking (Dutch: Wadlopen, German: Wattwandern, Dansk: Vadevandring) is a recreation enjoyed by Dutch, Germans, Danes, and others in the Netherlands, northwest Germany and in Denmark. Mudflat hikers are people who, with the aid of a tide table, use a period of low water to walk and wade on the watershed of the mudflats, especially from the Frisian mainland coast to the Frisian islands.
The Wadden Sea, a belt of the North Sea, is well suited to this traditional practice. Belts of this shallow sea lie off the mainland of the Netherlands, between the Provinces of Friesland and Groningen and the Frisian Islands; off the coast of Germany; and off the coast of southwest Jutland in Denmark.
The bottom of the sea at low tide
Lutjewad, sandbank near the village Lauwersoog. Lutjewad lies in the Wadden Sea between the mainland of the Province Groningen in northern Netherlands and the wadden island Schiermonnikoog.
The Wadden Sea (Dutch: Waddenzee, German: Wattenmeer, Danish: Vadehavet) 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. 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. 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. The islands in the Wadden Sea are called the Wadden Sea Islands or Frisian Islands.
The word wad is Dutch for "mud flat". 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 Wadden Sea is famous for its 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.
____________________________
All rights reserved. Copyright © Martien Uiterweerd. All my images are protected under international authors copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without my written explicit permission.
____________________________
.
.