Weekend: the extra night
The farm was for groups, but the island is very suitable for smaller groups of tourists too of course. I had thought I’d want to stay one more night, to relax, but also to work on some of the reports while on the island still. I’d also thought I’d be the only one free to do this, but I wasn’t. The stayers waved the big group bye at the boat, after which we took a bus back with our luggage. We’d agree to stay at the same hotel, near the beach. On Monday we had cycled past this place and Huub had pointed out the stones on the ground were made of sea clay. The Zwarte Toorts of the Helmkruidfamilie (yet another yellow flower) and the Slangenkruid of the Ruwbladigenfamlie (with blue flowers) were still growing here and we remembered their names!
We would frequently check our knowledge like this, but we took a moment to relax first. Before we parted from the group this morning, I’d gone to the bookstore with Sjors and we were still in ‘capturing every creature mode’. It seemed a long time ago this afternoon, but it was nice to take the time to rethink this past week. In one of the many good conversations we had had, someone (also an atheist) had said that to him believing in a God seemed the same as believing in Santa Claus, but for grown-ups. I liked this metaphor. Anyway, we were still on this time-less mode, so more or less suddenly, it was already time for dinner again. We noticed a starter on the menu with Zeekraal and since we’d seen so many of these, we got an idea.
We asked the chef if, instead of the big starter, we could just try the Zeekraal, prepared in different ways. We had already tried it raw, in the field, after Huub had told us this little plant takes up a lot of salt. This time we’d be comparing it to baked and cooked, with soy sauce. Raw was still unanimously favourite though. Cooked got second place. After dinner we went up to the WWII bunker, where you could look over almost the whole island. Well, if it hadn’t been dark already. In a way I felt melancholic. I kind of missed the group and felt homesick for the farm, as we hadn’t taken that turn earlier. It was a bit weird to cycle here without all of them too. But I was also mesmerised by the view of the moon, while I stood on top of the island.
It was a blue moon and this particular full moon made quite an impression. As I looked around in only the light of our natural satellite, I felt like an ant. Of course I already knew how our solar system works, but it seemed as if I now felt for the first time we really are just lucky to be on this big rock, with Luna circling around us. I travel a lot these days and I see much beauty around me. I’m probably not a ‘citizen of the world’ in that sense though, however poetic it may sound. But I am in love with this planet and with this island. There are many pretty things left to discover right under our noses. After this moment of philosophising, we agreed to make a few more memories tomorrow, before we had to head back to the mainland too.
“For when do you want to set your alarm?” I asked Ed. “Well I was thinking of Wednesday”, he replied, after we had gone for a last evening beach walk. The next morning at breakfast we remarked how we didn’t have to make a packed lunch. We did make a plan to see most of this place before we had to take that late afternoon boat. Our route would go past the red lighthouse, which we had seen from every angle except up close. We saw the green beach and took pictures of the ripple marks in the sand, of the traces of life in it and of birds (Cormorant-gulls) that from a distance had looked like seals. We had hoped to see the glowing algae our teacher had told us about, so we could text him to come to the beach (even though he wasn’t on the island anymore).
We went for ice cream, as we hadn’t found any last night, and then on to the white tower. After that we took a plane and flew over the island… just kidding of course. The picture of the map was taken at the visitor centre of Natuurmonumenten, where we bought a few books. And that card of a Kokmeeuw, to send to one of our colleagues later. We also visited the Shells Museum, which is like a huge treasure box. Set up by the professional beachcomber, who has also written some of the books we had been using earlier this week. Besides all sorts of shells, we saw bones and amber (think Jurassic Park) and the lovely man told us about how the Noordkromp can have more than 400 birthdays!
We also saw the results of the Boormossel, which makes holes in wood for instance. We had learned about this earlier this week. And we found out today that the holes we saw in a couple of shells during our investigation at the beach, were probably made by other creatures, trying to eat the molluscs. This was a good stop, in many ways, and we left with a smile. We had just enough time for a fishy lunch and a quick last walk through the dunes. Birds were gliding over the island and it often had surprised me when people we met were speaking Dutch too. As if we were in a different land. In the bus back we saw many of the same people we’d seen earlier. It’s a small world, literally. But one that captured me and I’m sure I’ll go back some day.
The trip home was draining, in every way, and feeling exhausted got a new meaning. It took a while before I landed home, in many ways as well. I wasn’t the only one suffering from ‘waddenwee’ though. On-going jokes are still being sent between fellow students, together with our pictures and findings of course. Wad was het leuk!
More pictures of the last day can be found on my flickr page.
2 Comments
I enjoyed reading this series very much and learned quite a bit along the way. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Graham; appreciate it!