My wife and I often go for a walk on Sunday mornings. Our kids (teenagers) sleep until late and hate walking, so the Sunday mornings are perfect. We often choose a natural environment somewhere in the neighborhood. This Sunday we went to Meijendel. Meijendel is a nature reserve at the Dutch coast near Wassenaar (just north of The Hague). The area covers 20 square kilometers of dunes, forest and lakes.

It was a warm and sunny day, perfect to go for a walk here. The proximity of the sea and the and the shelter of the trees made it a comfortable walk. From the parking space there are a few paths that go into the nature reserve. We we're quite early, but normally it can be quite crowded with people. We decided to go a bit deeper into the nature reserve. And there the paths became a bit more challenging. A large part of the trail was loose sand and some parts we needed to do a little bit of climbing, as you can see in the photo below.

The dunes have a lot of lakes. The lakes are being used to produce drinking water. The water that comes from the tap at our home comes from the dunes. The water is filtered through the fine sand of the dunes. Very few chemicals are added to ensure it is safe and meets drinking water standards. We actually always drink water from the tap instead from bottles like in many other countries.

A bit furhter in the route there was another, bigger lake. The lake had a small island that housed a lot of birds.

The nature reserve has a lot of birds. On one part of the route there was a bird viewing wall. A wooden wall with a couple of openings next to a lake. From there you can spot the water birds and they cannot spot you.

Here is the view through the hole. I didn't bring my camera with me, so I wasn't able to zoom in that much. There were quite some birds, mostly ducks, cormorants, great crested grebes and moorhens.

The deeper we went into the reserve, the smaller the paths became. On some parts we had to make our way through the high grass. When walking in areas like this it is always good to check for ticks since they can often be found on high grass.

At the end of the route we spotted some wildlife. It was funny because my wife actually didn't spot it until we walked past him (or her). There are a lot of cows and horses that have been released in this area for natural grazing.

We really enjoyed this walk. In the end it was a 6 kilometer walk, but the hilly area and sandy paths made it a good exercise. We did deserve the coffee at the terrace near the parking (at least, we think we did!).

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Friendlymoose

I'm an amateur photographer with a love for indoor gardening, craft beer, and cycling. As the owner of the Cycling Community and the creator of the Topcomment initiative, I focus on fostering engagement and bringing like-minded people together. Check out my projects below!

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