In the center of The Netherlands lies one of our biggest National Parks 'Veluwe'. In the West of that park you can find 'Kootwijkerzand' which once was a village according to the remains of farms and pots they have found. Due to too intensive use of the land sand was able to take over, blocking water supply, which makes 'Kootwijkerzand' (Kootwijk = name of village, zand means sand) the 'biggest sand shift of North-West Europe'.
If you travel a lot it's easy to forget to explore the beauties of your own country, which is why we hired a car for the weekend to do some exploring. We looked at the map of our tiny country, noticed the sandy areas in the middle, found a cute-sounding village near those sands, and decided to go without doing further research.
It paid off.
After arriving on this exact parking spot we easily found a 3 kms signed walking path over the sands and through a forest.
This route is short for those of us who want to do a leisure walk or have trouble walking while still giving you a great sample of what this area has to offer. For those with stronger legs or a thirst of challenging their step counters: the area is basically borderless, so it's easy to find your own route and let the winds guide you.
After leaving the parking place you'll first pass a viewing tower which lets you see the whole area, but I opted to walk towards the middle of the area instead, leaving behind the playing children and families enjoying their weekends as well. We brought some of my cold-brew coffee and hot water in a thermos and found a spot in the sand to sit and enjoy the surroundings in silence.
There is something magnificent about finding a landscape that you don't associate with your country at all. The Netherlands has dunes near the coast, almost no hills in the rest of the country, and is mostly known for ultra-flat landscapes covered in tulips with some mills here and there breaking the horizon.
So, me being able to walking up and down dunes in the center of The Netherlands is a truly estranging experience. And yes, those dunes only go 5 meters high, if I'm rounding up, but still.
Now, one of my dreams as a photographer is definitely to visit the sahara or another desert someday and take pictures of endless sandy landscapes with a single bush or other object in the middle, but until then this one will have to do:
[The shape of the tree and the clouds above it felt celebratory and explosive to me. It's a happy picture.]
After walking on this challenging underground of loose sand we arrived at a forest path. It takes you through a nice piece of forest that still shows some traces of sand but gets more and more overgrown the further you walk.
As a photographer I love that I'm able to visit a landscape like this so close to home. During our walk we did shortly discuss whether or not it's a pity they didn't try to recover the landscape instead of making it a protected area. I'm undecided. I have gotten curious about this area as a whole and am looking forward to more road trips to the area.
Do you know of very 'exceptional' areas in your own country? Places that are just very different from the rest of your country or what people know of your country? I'd love to hear about your tips in the comments!
All photography on steemit.com/@soyrosa is created and edited by me, Rosanne Dubbeld, 2005-2018. Contact me if you want to discuss licensing or collaborations on creative projects :-)
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