Wind & Waves

Sunday 2022/09/18

Today at the North Sea was roughly as one imagines it at home: strong wind, rough waves and many people walking along the beach.

In the morning, we cycled from the campsite in Vrouwenpolder to Domburg and then to Westkapelle, the westernmost tip of the Walcheren peninsula in Zeeland, the Netherlands. Until 1871, Walcheren was an island. Fortunately, the weather was kind to us - it only started raining heavily after we returned to the campsite. The sand dunes and beaches in Oostkapelle and Domburg are fantastic. This area is particularly popular with surfers. Many beach cafes invite you to linger, an offer we gladly accepted. From the beach cafe in Westkapelle, you can watch the ships entering and leaving the Oostgat.

Westkapelle boasts three lighthouses, one of which we climbed - the 't Hoge Licht. It was originally a church tower, but has long been used as a lighthouse and has one of the strongest beacons in Europe (the Bretons would certainly object to that!). Piet Mondrian painted a world-famous picture of it in 1908, which can now be admired in the Kunstmuseum in The Hague.

We only admired and photographed the 't Lage Licht lighthouse on the dike, also known as Noorderhoofd. It seems to be one of the most photographed things in Westkapelle. Standing 16 meters tall with 4 floors, it has been on the dike since 1874. Slightly above it, there is a bird observation point where hobby ornithologists armed with telescopes and telephoto lenses await migrating birds. Eagle eyes and a lot of patience are required.