Walking&discovering the Wadden sea/ Wattführung mit Heino auf Insel Juist

 

Das Wattenmeer, known in English as the "Wadden Sea", is an intertidal sea, part of the North sea. I had the big pleasure to be last weekend on the car free island Juist (the second German Eastfrisian islands after the Dutch islands)... And one of the thing to do and really not to miss here is a walk on during low tide in the Wadden Sea with the local guide Heino...Heino transfers to you not only only his tons of enormous knowledge about the life under the sand, but also his love to this unique ecosystem on Earth!

 

Very witty he compares during the whole guided tour (from 2 till 3 hours) the sea with human organs cleaning the entire system. The shell common cockle (de. "Herzmuschel") are the kidneys, the worms (de. "Sandpierwurm") are the lungs....each of the water inhabitants has an unique cleaning function: the cockles filter the water and keep all dirt and toxins in them See for confirmation the quick test Heino did  for us by putting cockles in one jar with muddy sea water next to jar without those cleaners. After 2 hours the jar with the shell contained some crystal clear water...Another very important local is the rock worm (de. "Sandpierwurm"). He is the one leaving some spaghetti-looking sand mountains behind. This is actually the cleaned sand once after it had passed through his body. A very visual way to see the difference between the cleaned and still-to-cleaned sand is the colour of it. The top layer of the sand held by Heino is the one already filtered by the efficient worms!

 

We have also met the famous "Seeklaffmuschel" (see picture below). A sand inhabitant who hides some 40 cm under the surface. Heino took it with big care outside for us so we could look closer and learn that this specie is also endangered. In the last 10 years their number has decreased really quick due to the human influence by enlarging harbours and changing working ecosystems...
At the end we could even hold some sea crabs to convince ourselves that they are not dangerous at all...

Ameland

Last weekend I had the chance to visit one more from the 5 Dutch "Waddeneilanden": Ameland. This is the fourth island (north of Amsterdam) and it is not carfree (as island 2 and 5: Vlieland and Schirmonnikoog). However biking on Ameland is still pleasant (be prepared for some tough wind though-its the Netherlands).

We went to the local "kaasborderij"(=cheese farm) and tasted the local organic cheese too. Next to this we said hi to the tons of sheep there, enjoyed the lovely old houses, climbed the lighthouse (next entry will be more detils on it) and breathed some fresh sea air:-)

Northern Dutch beauty: Schiermonnikoog

The sun was shining right into my eyes and it felt almost like summer.
Sitting in the outside bar of the Hotel "Graaf Bernstorff", I was enjoying watching the happening in the tiny center of the (only) village on the island. Busy crowd in front of the only supermarket here and the traffic jam of bikes...
It took us 3 hours drive and 1 ferry transfer (45 min) to reach the furthest northern island of all 5 Dutch Waddeneilanden: Schiermonnikoog...a national park, carfree piece of land (16x4km), and on the top sunshine + 18-20 degrees for the long Easter weekend...

Within 48 hours we biked between sand dunes and 2 lighthouses, met plenty of birds (there are wild pheasants running all over), visited a cheese farm, enjoyed the sun...In the ShellMuseum/Schelpenmuseum we had a great chat with Thijs, the owner of the museum, a local, who collects shells and snail houses more or less all his life. He has very impressive collection of shells from Western Australia too.

I also learned something new that day: the soo common for the Netherlands razor clam/Atlantic jacknife clam/lat. Ensis directus (on the last photo) was brought to (Northwestern) Europe via some big American ships in the 1978-1979. I still regard it with big respect as this specie does not exist at the Black sea coast, the coast I grew up with as a kid:)

Some more pictures from the island (translated from Frisian Schiermonnikoog means "Island of the Grey Monks") are to be found here.