By bicycle - 13 June

This Sunday, we took the bicycles and went for a run round the island by pushbike. Starting off by going through the entire complex of holiday cottages that stretch from the Ankerplaats east to the edge of the Stortemelk campsite, then on to the easternmost point of the island. This offers a nice view of the next island, Terschelling. The marina and harbour are half a mile down the road from there, with quite a few old sailing ships in there, dating back to the early 1900s. We headed south, through the village to the main road towards the Posthuys. Halfway there, we had a look at a restored duck decoy trap at Oude Kooi, and an interesting chat to the old gent who lived in the nearby house. No ducks are being trapped these days, by the way. We put the bikes away near the Posthuys and walked down the dyke, fronting the Kroonspolders to the southeast of the restaurant. The Kroonspolders are a failed attempt at land reclamation, but are a success in terms of being a nature reserve. The dyke has been deliberately breached to create a tidal, brackish area of water in polder #3 (there are 4 polders). From the end of the dyke, we walked to the Army Camp, about 2 km to the south, and back along the beach to the crossing west of the Posthuys. Having retrieved the cycles, we returned to the Ankerplaats, 5 miles to the north.