Hi everybody. Here is me again with part II of me vacation blogs. In part I me told you all about the island Texel. Well there is lots to see besides towns and sheep – although me really love sheep… – because the island has a lot of national parks and nature scenery too. There are forests, dunes and De Slufter (pronounce it as The Sluv-ter). Me visited this particular piece of nature twice while me stayed on the island. Both times it was magnificent and totally different. Me hope the pictures will give you an impression of how beautiful this piece of nature is…What is De Slufter
De Slufter is a grand piece of nature made by the ocean and Mother Nature herself. It is a large piece of open space between two rows of dunes. Dunes are natural dykes made of sand and vegetation, like dune grass. When the sea gets rough and wants to flood the main land, the dunes are there to catch the water. Most of the time there are two or three rows of dunes. The one closest to the water is the smallest, the ones more on land are the highest. That way they can capture the water. Well, at De Slufter the ocean broke the first row, creating a way to flood directly into the large open space when the tides get high. Also the ocean created a gorgeous and unique landscape with creeks, streams and bunkers covered with soft grass, little flowers, seaweeds and plants.
High tides and rainy days
The first time me visited De Slufter, the weather had been tricky. It had rained a lot the day and night before and it was drizzling that day. Also the tide was high. This is very important to know. So after climbing up the high dunes – there was a path, but it felt a little like climbing – we were treated to a very magnificent landscape. It was so wide! Me suddenly felt like a tiny tiny Cookie Monster! Even with the grey and drizzly weather conditions. There was green as far as me googly eyes could see. All the way to an opening of the dunes where me could see small waves – it was far away – roll onto the beach… We went down to see it a little more up close and saw these beautiful creeks and streams were carved out of the landscape like cookies from cookie dough. We wanted to hike in further, but we couldn’t. Because of the high tides lots of regular paths were blocked by water. So we looked around for a while and went back over the dunes.
Low tides and sunshine
A few days later the weather changed. The sun shone high in the sky and we decided to go back to De Slufter. Boy was that different! On top of the dunes me could see even more of this gorgeous piece of nature. Me even could see the lighthouse on the Northpoint kilometres away! It was breath taking and me almost dropped me cookie. The tide was low at the moment we entered De Slufter (again, very important), so this time we could walk over the regular pathways. We jumped over a little stream in a creek with ease, just taking in the scenery. We did not go all the way to the beach, there was a warning that there could be sick seals there and we did not want to expose our doggy to them. But we came so close. We even walked on the ocean floor, because there was seaweed growing between the sand. As we took in the scenery it was important to keep an eye out for the changing of the tides. One moment we noticed the streams were flowing the wrong way: time to get back, because it meant the tide was getter higher. When the tide rises you have plenty of time to get back before you get wet feet, but the water level of the streams rose quickly. The stream we easily crossed just minutes ago, was now a much larger stream. So me jumped on Berries back and she brought me to the dry land again. We took a breather in the grass just to take in the scenery again before we left.
Must see
If you ever visit the island of Texel and just want to experience a beautiful work of art made by the artist that is Nature, you must go and visit De Slufter. It does not matter what kind of weater it is. Even the tides does not matter. Every visit is different and that makes it so special. Well, bye bye for now!
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