The Best of Nature cycle route shows how sustainable the South Holland and Zeeland islands are. With herbs from the own garden on the menu and self-catering holiday homes.
There it is, just like that on the cycle path. A deer rushing into the woods. You don’t expect it, so close to the Rotterdam Maasvlakte. The gray pipes of the harbor industry reach the horizon, like half-pressed cigarettes in a beautiful glass ashtray. Yet here in Westvoorne, the west of the South Holland island of Voorne-Putten, there is a dune biotope where seals rest on sandbanks and hungry spoonbills search for shrimps.
The Best of Nature cycle route runs about a hundred kilometers through the southwest delta area, previously voted the most sustainable nature destination in the world. The award-winner: Green Destinations, a foundation that works on sustainable tourism with more than two hundred destinations in sixty countries. The South Holland and Zeeland islands score high not only with their nature and clean bathing water, but also with the ambition that they want to be completely self-sufficient by 2040.
Take tonight’s atmospheric place to sleep. Linda Sjoukes took over the camping Ketjil from her grandfather in the dune area of Voorne and built, among other things, a holiday home with sustainable underfloor heating, a toilet on rainwater and electricity-generating solar panels. Two kilometers away, the chef of restaurant Aan Zee Oostvoorne cooks everything on logs, which are given as a gift by the guests once a year in exchange for a discount on the meal.
“Clams and clams almost all go to Spain and Italy,” says restaurant employee Sander de Smit. “Sin. We cook with it. ” Salicornia and lamb’s ears come from the beach, the beef from the meadows further on and the herbs from our own garden. About ten years ago you could drive the car to the surf. You got driving lessons on the beach. That is no longer allowed. Despite the strict control of man, playful mudflats, sandbanks and channels have developed over time, which attract a lot of birds.
The cycle route meanders along the Quackjeswater towards the Haringvlietdam, where the locks have been ajar for a year now. Good for migratory fish and river nature. With wind force four it is hard to pedal, but a wild sea is more majestic than a calm one. Wild flowers grow next to the cycle path on Goeree-Overflakkee that would not easily fit into a bouquet together. The colors clash, but here they go together like a dissonance – nice for the eye, especially for the bees.
Suddenly busy at Sonnemans Bakery in Burgh-Haamstede on Schouwen-Duiveland. A long queue testifies to the popularity of the Zeeland boluses and sausage rolls. Rolf, who runs the bakery with his parents and two sisters, is happy with the nature lovers on “his” island. “Young people on their way to Renesse sometimes wanted to put the bicycle rack on the road or demolish things.” He likes to go kite surfing at the Brouwersdam – if it is not too busy, because it is becoming very popular there. >>
Rolf’s tips: Westerschouwen forestry with shetland ponies and the Schelphoek, a creek area that was created after the 1953 flood disaster. You can eat an ice cream on the terrace, maybe catch a few words of German, see children hopping around with plastic buckets in their hands.
It is deserted on the other side of the island. A fisherman stands in the sand with his wellies, sheep look at their reflection by a pool, an upset oystercatcher sings shrill: te-piet, te-piet.
It’s a shame to leave after just one night on an island. In addition to the longer cycle route that runs through the four municipalities of Westvoorne, Goeree-Overflakkee, Schouwen-Duiveland and Veere, you can cycle a circle on each island.
In the latter case, you do double the stretch, but rehearsal is never monotonous in a nature reserve. Just as it is possible to listen to Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres” time and again, sometimes moved by the flageolets, then again by the harmonic ambiguity; this way, the view of the Oosterschelde cannot be boring.
Cockles and clams are on the plate again, at the Heerenkeet restaurant and fish shop in Kerkwerve. Just like wrinkles and langoustines. “We started selling bycatch about twenty years ago,” says owner Marion Snijder. “Think of dab and whiting.” Her husband buys everything at the fish auction. Only the cod comes from Norway, which means that the fishermen don’t have to go far to sea for it.
If you stay on the terrace long enough, you will automatically see how the tide plays with the landscape.
The Oosterscheldekering, nine kilometers long, always seems to be windy. Fight again. You get the best view of the island of Walcheren when you climb the lighthouse ‘t Hoge Licht in Westkapelle, in an old church tower. The guide tells fierce stories about the Second World War, when the Allies bombed the dikes to drive out the German occupier. But his words are forgotten in the evening, when the sun sinks into the sea behind an empty sandy beach.
