Great Rivers Trail

bartjeej

Hall of Famer
In September of this year, me and my buddy walked the Grote Rivierenpad (Great Rivers Trail, basically the Dutch part of the E8 European long distance trail). In 9 days we hiked 242 kilometers (150 miles) along some of the rivers forming the Dutch delta, from the beach at Hoek van Holland until Nijmegen, a city almost on the German border.

Below are some impressions. At times (actually quite often) we were too tired to stop for photos; a lot of our bodies hurt a lot of the time. Still I think I got some nice ones in there. All photos taken with the Fuji XF10, all but 1 SOOC apart from crop and resize.

We started at the beach on a hazy early autumn morning
2021_0918_09324900.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


Then walked along the Maas (Meuse) river, admiring the massive industry at the Port of Rotterdam
2021_0918_12450300.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Modern water pump keeping the adjacent polders (some 5 meters lower than the river) dry. White structure in the background is the Maeslantkering, two massive sliding doors that can close off the 300 meter wide river from the sea in case a storm threatens to push the water inland. Its doors swivel on the world's largest ball bearings

2021_0918_13403300 (3).jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

World's largest crane ship, its cranes can lift up to 18,000 metric tons. It's used for installing oil rigs.

As we moved away from the estuary, things slowly got less industrial
2021_0918_14273600.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Schiedam town center

2021_0919_11262100.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Sheep on a dike thought I was there to feed them, even though they had a sea of grass all to themselves

2021_0919_12491900.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Remnants of an old bridge that became too low for shipping and too narrow for road traffic. Its younger sister to the left

2021_0919_16461100.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Remnants of a willow swamp that was cultivated by people using the flexible branches for baskets, fences, reinforcements et cetera

2021_0920_12112100.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Just liked the shadow on the house

2021_0920_16295300.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

First view of Unesco world heritage site Kinderdijk
2021_0920_16423800.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Its 17 windmills in 2 rows (for two polders that both drained their water into the river at their joint border but couldnt agree on how to manage the windmills that did the draining, so each polder has its own row of windmills) attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. On a monday afternoon in september of the Second Year, Covid Era, we practically had the place to ourselves

2021_0922_09272800.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Cobwebs on a windmill further east

2021_0922_09330100.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Polder window

2021_0922_11214900.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

On boring countryside roads we played a spotify playlist over a bluetooth speaker (hiking isnt what it used to be :p ). When a great guitar solo comes up you just have to whip out your air guitar...

2021_0923_09503900.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

This apparent lake was created by the powerful vortex of water after a dam break grinding an 18m deep hole in the ground

2021_0923_09522100.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

We slowly moved away from the peatlands and cow meadows, into the fruit growing region of the country

2021_0923_10593400.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)


2021_0923_17051600.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

2CV breadvan in a dike town on a very quiet peninsula created by a meandering river. Too cute

2021_0924_15570700.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Smaller river used mainly for recreation

2021_0926_09315900.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Right: the Rhine, locally called the Waal river carries freight boats to Germany. Left: low-lying meadows alongside the river are allowed to flood in case of high water, usually in winter. The proper dike protecting the adjacent lands is some 500 meters inland from the river. Cows can graze the grass most of the year

2021_0926_13023600.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Nijmegen. After 240 of our 242 kilometers, something went wrong in my back, so the glorious city center image I had in mind became a random street shot on the shortest route to the train station. Still, it felt like a proper achievement.

The E8 continues all the way to Istanbul (although it becomes sketchy after Austria), but I doubt I can get my buddy to try the whole thing...
 
Back
Top