A foretaste of wadlopen in Groningen #BELM15

Imagine a cold, grey and rainy day at the smallest open sea port of The Netherlands: the Noordpolderzijl in Groningen. Imagine a group of 10 people wearing jackets and (most of them) shorts. Yes, shorts in a cold day!! what do you think they are going to do? Well, I can tell you as I was one of the 10 people, we were getting ready to go Wadlopen in Groningen’s Noordpolderzijl.

Wadlopen means “mud walking” and consist on walking from the mainland to an Island of the Wadden Sea or to a sand flat during the low tide. It means that you get wet and covered in mud. So you could imagine I wasn’t feeling like going wadlopen when we arrived in the Noordpolderzijl and the weather was so bad.

The second problem we were facing was the tide. The high tide was at 15:00 and we were starting the walk at 15:15, what it means the water level was still to high. But hey, some of the group were there from far away and we had to try at least. With a guide from Stichting Wadloopcentrum Pieterburen we put “feet on mud”! Here is a short video of the experience.

Even thought it was just a foretaste of wadlopen in Groningen, I think it was the best activity to end up our bloggers event #BELM15. I’m sure everyone is going to remember it for a long time!!

For me it was the second time I went wadlopen. The first time, I crossed from Holwerd to Ameland with my colleagues. In Groningen I was missing the good weather but I have to admit, wadlopen with not so nice weather is really rewarding.

Did you know what wadlopen is? Have you tried it?

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9 Comments

Elaine J. Masters

11/07/2015 at 23:16 Reply

Had no idea this existed and it sounds like a fun ritual. Must say I’d prefer doing it in someplace tropical like walking the sand bridge to Koh Tao in Thailand.

Paula McInerney

12/07/2015 at 11:20 Reply

Love the Netherlands and love mud. I so want to do this

Anda

13/07/2015 at 8:48 Reply

Mud walking in the cold? And in shorts? I don’t think so, Shere, not my cup of tea.

Haley

14/07/2015 at 0:31 Reply

I’ve never tried it, but it sounds like fun!

Samantha

14/07/2015 at 9:02 Reply

Never heard of this activity. I’m sure you had a fun day but cold, wet and mud are three things that I wouldn’t consider ingredients for a fun filled day for me. Infact it sounds like my nightmare adventures! But if you had fun that is all that matters 🙂

zof

14/07/2015 at 10:32 Reply

I had no idea mud walking was a thing, but now I kind of want to try it myself. I’d probably wait for a better weather tho….

Milosz Zak

15/07/2015 at 7:18 Reply

I have a picture just like that – the one with the feet, but we all have slippers on for the museum floor, and it was taken at the Solar Barque Museum on the Giza Plateau – love that photo.