Donderdag: kwelderdag
Since we take care of each other so well, I woke up with a cup of tea next to my bed this morning (right before any alarms had gone off). I was part of the ‘cooking crew’ today, but since we’d have to do the exam this evening, and since the budget allowed us, we collectively decided on pizzas from the lovely shop around the corner. We still wanted to make a salad to go with the Italian meal, so we (lucky me was put in a group with the two boys) went to the shop while everyone was still getting ready for the tidal marsh (and the other group for the beach). We had heard it would be quite a tour. Wichard was going to take us today and he suggested cycling a – sort of – path in between the dunes and the beach, on the north side of the island.
It was sandy and rocky and indeed a challenge. An hour cycling on the island only felt like 15 minutes though, even on this particular adventure. In the middle of nowhere, we found a break through the dunes, where we dropped our bikes. We marked this spot on our phones using GPS, as we would never be able to find it back again without. We went on walking through the field. I had been looking forward to running around and taking it all in from the moment I opened my eyes. Three stops were planned, in the areas where the marsh would gradually have changed. We did more or less the same investigations as yesterday, which involved looking at the plant growth more closely. Until we eventually reached the mudflats on the other side of the island.
Besides enjoying the environment with our measuring tools, we laid down in it too. And besides of the assignments, I learned a lot of new trivial facts. For instance that there is such a plant as Valse Kamille, which looks like Echte Kamille, but doesn’t have the nice smell or taste (hence the name ‘false’). The plant with the nicest smell was Zeealsem. People actually use these in wardrobes, to make them smell nice. Can you imagine what it was like walking through a field full of them? There was also this really cool little flower, the Gerande Schijnspurrie, which protects itself from the upcoming water by quickly closing its flower head. A group member made a video while pulling it under water and moving it back up again. It opens up as quickly as it shuts!
Our first stop was at the high part of the marsh. We drew a map of the plants and dug a hole to see how much humus we’d get, before reaching sand. It was quite a lot! We mostly saw areas of Strandkweek, Heen and Valse Kamille and on the lower parts of this spot there were little groups of Zeeaster and Zeealsem. We had lunch (and some pesky black flies tried to have us for lunch), before we walked on to the next stop at the lower part of the marsh. Here we’d mostly see the Zeeaster and Zeealsem, and on the lower bits of this part already Zeekraal even. Walking further to the sea, it gets saltier, because those parts of the land are covered in seawater longer. The pH of the ground goes up, as the amount of chalk in the water makes the environment less acidic.
The last stop was in the area which gradually goes over to the mudflat zone. Here you’d see more and more of the plants who’re able to cope with lots more salt, like Engels Slijkgras, Schorrekruid and Lamsoor. We did walk on to the part where there were only a few Zeekraaltjes and some Zeesla (Groenwier) left. Obviously, you can only do this walk when the tide is low. The view was breathtaking. We just took it in for, I don’t know how long, before we went on to take this whole trip again, but in reverse. As we took a lot of pictures, it’s easy to see how the marsh gets wetter and wetter when nearer the Wadden sea. There were also a few slenken (graben), or slootjes. Water crawls back south via the lowest areas and so these were sometimes filled with a lot of water.
We took the first few of these booby-traps carefully. Most didn’t seem deep, but we quickly learned not to be fooled by their appearance. Even if you could easily see the bottom, you could still sink away in it more rapidly than you imagined. Most of us were wearing boots (except for the one guy, nicknamed HP, who forgot them and just walked in socks – yes). The first few waters turned out not deep enough to make our feet wet, but after I took the one rising to me knees and filling up my boots, I jumped in even more enthusiastically in the ones to come. Could it get any higher? Yep! There was one which made my jeans wet, reaching my buttocks. In fact, we sank so deep we had to help each other out of that one.
Obviously this was a lot of fun. But there were also students who were more careful and tried (successfully) in other parts of these lakes. Although you won’t run into other people here, the field is so big that if it wasn’t for the GPS directions, we wouldn’t have found our own tracks back. We walked on into even higher grasses, while the aquarium I had gained in my boots made funny pool noises. We had one more short break, before we suddenly saw our bikes. I was surprised to see them already. One of the others girls was too and she was so happy she jumped up and down saying we were already there. My boots were stuck. It felt like a vacuum even and they had to be pulled off me. I peeled my wet jeans off my legs and was rather happy I had thought to bring my shorts.
We still had a way to cycle of course but although this day was physically exhausting, I could feel it was very healthy and good. This blue sky was my favourite colour blue too and although it let out a few drops of rain, it was never cold. I felt very much alive and happy. Today we were the last group to return to our farm and lots of things had to be done all of a sudden. We would only present our findings in short today and while all the others were doing some last minute studying, Ed, Sjors and I were preparing dinner. It was only after we had eaten that the thee of us had time to shower. Not really thinking about it, I already put on pyjamas and then we were sent to our rooms. This, because our teachers were going to prepare the exam in the living room.
Feeling a bit like rebelling students, each of us waited differently. Some got together on one bed. Others took another quick look at the list, while junior was playing around. When someone asked if Muurpeper(noot) was part of the Strooigoedfamilie, we seemed to have collectively decided we’d just do our best and see what happens, with a smile. I think I had had enough practice this afternoon. Meanwhile every chair in the living room got a plant or a picture of an animal on it, and a number next to it. In serious silence we walked past these, writing down what we knew. Afterwards, our teachers went into the bedroom, leaving us to discuss the evening while they marked our tests. Eventually they came back with the result that almost everybody passed it…
I was happy I did and I cheered up after someone who didn’t said he would just redo it at school soon. I realised this was the first exam I had ever done in pyjamas! I went to put on clothes again though, as we were going for a – by now infamous – strandpakket evening. Some of the guys who hadn’t touched any beer the rest of the week, celebrated tonight. We had some good conversations and above all a grant time. It was probably late when we arrived home. Everyone had gone to their beds for the last time (except for the one person sleeping on the sofa). It had been quite an adventure for Anouk and me to cycle back with these guys – but we made it – and we could laugh about the dynamo-song when were on safe ground again.
We had seen a falling star on our way back, but we had nothing left to wish for. A couple of us had put my matrass on the floor, which is where I slept this last evening. When Huub asked about it the next morning, I said there was a very good reason for this: we thought it was fun! Fun is always a very good reason. And we did have a lot of it, this whole week. This Friday morning we got up, to clean up and pack and meanwhile someone had discovered the radio. How remarkable to have spent a week without much silence, but pretty much without music too (someone had tried to silence Adele earlier, but even on this last morning she appeared unstoppable). It would soon be time to thank everybody and say bye, although some of us had decided to stay one more night.
More pictures of Thursday can be found on my flickr page.
