Travel Report – Region “West” – the Netherlands

From Rostock in Germany, I travelled about 600km (as the crow flies) to Dordrecht in the Netherlands by train to start my journey in the “West” Region of the Biodiversity Ride. 

Why Dordrecht? Because nearby there is the National Park De Biesbosch. So, to be exact I started at the National Park De Biesbosch and cycled via the islands of Zeeland alongside the shore to the Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide at the border to Belgium. All in all, I cycled 290km with 1050 metres of altitude (surprisingly “much” for the Netherlands) in 5 days.

At first glance, the landscape didn’t seem to be as different to me than the “North” Region, except for the obvious water channels between the fields, a very typical feature of the Netherlands, of course. Agricultural monoculture fields with sometimes hedges in between and patches of forests (mainly plantations) and again very sandy soil are some things both regions have in common. 

But the forest of the National Park De Biesbosch looked very different than the ones in Germany. It consists mostly of willows and this national Park is a freshwater tidal area, a very rare type of ecosystem in the world. The landscape is shaped by ebb and flow and is home to many different bird species and of course, the beaver also feels very comfortable here. 

From there I drove to Rotterdam to talk to Harriet Kos a coordinator of the minor program “Creating Resilient Cities” at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. While driving into Rotterdam I noticed a lot of green spaces within the city with tall meadows and lots of wildflowers. A rather unusual sight for most cities. My host in Rotterdam, who coincidentally turned out to be a college of Harriet – the world is so small –  told me that the city aims to restore Biodiversity within their borders and you can find quite a few projects while cycling around the city. Btw. Rotterdam was the most convenient city to bike in I’ve ever visited! Sure, I had high expectations since the Netherlands is known for their bike-friendly infrastructure, but the reality exceeded my imagination by far! The bike paths are a dream come true for me as a spatial planner. They are safe, and they bring you to every location within the city, even though there are many other bicycles around you do have your space and the best part is you almost always have priority over cars – meaning whenever you come to a crossing the traffic light for the bikes becomes green within seconds. Truly bicycle heaven!

Since I was fascinated by Rotterdam and my lovely hosts didn’t mind having me for another night, I decided to use my break day to explore the city some more. I visited old parts of the harbour, that were turned into biodiversity-friendly green spaces, banks of canals that are partly filled in with sand to create breeding sites for native birds again and outside the city in the south I visited a natural area where a herd of highland cattle is grazing. In the end, I cycled about 50km on my break day. Yes, I did feel that in my legs later on, but I did not regret seeing these interesting projects.

The next day I continued my journey towards the islands of the Zeeland. Along the way, I visited a local food forest, where, as the name says, various perennial vegetable and fruit varieties are grown and harvested –  a way more resilient and nature-positive way of agriculture and a very beautiful location to take a walk. Other than that I made stops at another rewilding area at an artificially created island “Landtong Rozenburg” and a Nature visitor centre, where they showed me some of the wild orchids native to the region. 

Even though I cycled quite near the coast for the majority of the third day I didn’t really see the sea until I drove there directly to have dinner at a restaurant at the shore. And even then I could only see the sea in the distance because the tide was out. After dinner, I decided to walk to the sea and was rewarded with beautiful pictures of the sunset in this very bizarre, vast, and empty-looking environment of a low tide. It made me feel humbled, but in a good way, if you know what I mean. With the strong wind blowing around me it felt difficult to believe what a huge impact we small humans have on nature. 

But our imprint on the land is undeniable. I tend to focus on the positive things I see on my journey whether it is in this blog or in the stories I share on social media or in the pictures and videos I make during the day. Because as Europeans I think we are so used to being surrounded by agriculture and managed forests that both mostly consist of monoculture that it is simply normal and not worth mentioning. But to be honest the vast majority of my trip especially here in the Netherlands the landscape is exactly that. Monoculture. Huge Monoculture fields that cannot be maintained in the long term without artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Monoculture that is deadly to most living beings.

You almost can’t escape monoculture, even though I try to visit a lot of natural areas (meaning protected areas). “Kop van Shouwen” a landscape protection area was one of them, where you get a glimpse of how diverse the landscape near the shore in this region could be. But even here you find a lot of pine plantations. 

The strong winds were a constant companion on travel day 4 and 5. On day 4 in my favour, when the wind literally blew me over the islands and especially the huge dams connecting the islands of the Zeeland and on day 5 they were working against me. With 30°C for the first time since I started my tour and strong headwinds and no shade in sight for almost 30km alongside the coast (and no real break day in this region) I really struggled to get to my meeting at Grenspark Kalmthouse Heide. The end of my journey in the “West” region. 

But somehow I managed to cycle the almost 70km that day and arrived on time. I can’t remember being ever this happy to arrive in the woods! There I met with Ruben Evens a scientist from the University of Antwerp, who studies the impact of skyglow on the behaviour of Nightjars (nocturnal birds). We went into Grenspark looking for sleeping Nightsjars and had a really interesting talk about his work and how the park is being managed and biodiversity and the climate in general. As we walked through the heathlands of the park every step made a “crunchy” noise, since it has not rained here in over 6 weeks. The same as in the “North” Region. Only here, you could not miss the signs of dryness. Ruben told me that this year they have hardly found a nest from the Nightjars yet, although it is breeding season and that empty stomachs are also very often found when the birds are examined. As far as they can tell right now, it seems that the number of nocturnal insects this year is extremely low in this region. As you may recall I wrote about not breeding birds in the “North” Region as well…

When you talk to a scientist, who is really worried about the state of the world, it gets to you, I can tell you. It once again reminded me why I am on this journey. Whereas when you talk to “normal” people you meet here every day on the road, I don’t get the feeling that they are really concerned. Maybe a little bit because of the drought, but when it comes to insect mortality, for example, some are still a little concerned, but not like it will affect their lives in any way. Some also think that certain conservation measures go too far. Especially when it comes to agriculture. In the Netherlands, there is a big debate about restricting the use of pesticides, which is meeting with a lot of resistance, especially from farmers.

With the last of my strength, I managed to get my bike onto the train to Antwerp, thus completing the “West” part of the Biodiversity Ride.

Unfortunately, the “South” part of my trip has to be postponed for personal reasons. I hope to catch up with this region very soon.  Instead, the “East” part of the journey will start a little earlier and we (yes, this time I am not travelling alone anymore) will start our tour along the Green Belt of Europe from Bad Radkersburg in Austria.

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The Climate Walk is a combined research, education and media-art project by the Wanderers of Changing Worlds. It is about walking across Europe to understand regional experiences of Climate Change. It is about listening to local perspectives, learning from them and connecting these stories together to construct a holistic, people-centric understanding of these complex phenomena.
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