An unexpected excursion

Last Saturday,  daughter 1 and I went on an unexpected excursion and found this glorious, almost secret beach.

The Grevelingenmeer

But before I get to that, there was a small matter of collecting an addition to our fleet. Yes, really, but before I hear all the gasps and 'are you mad?'s, let me show you what it is:

Meet 'Blue' our new maintenance dinghy. I know. We have one already, but it's so much handier if we have two so that we can work independently at different places on Vereeniging's hull. Add to that, we also have a Hennie Ha, so now we can, in theory, work on both boats simultaneously if need be! We found this little gem on our Dutch version of ebay and it's immaculate. I'm almost reluctant to get it dirty it's in such good condition, but we bought it for a bargain price and we are delighted with it. 

Anyway, to collect it involved a 110 km drive north to the town of Hellevoetsluis (pronounced Hellefootslouse) to the south west of Rotterdam. Saturday started off beautifully and the sun shone as Daughter 1 and I, together with  pups, Lucy and Zoe, on the back seat, sped along the western edge of Zeeland, over the amazing Oosterschelde storm surge barrier, part of the famous Delta works and across the islands to our destination. For Jodie, it was a brand new route as she'd never been that way before and I think she was quite captivated by the wild coastal duneland with its covering off rough golden grass and tempting hiking possibilities.

Having mounted 'Blue' on the roof, we set off back with the aim of finding a good spot to walk the dogs. We'd originally thought we might go to the beach, but with the weather being so fine, a change of plan looked more appealing and we turned off at signs to the Grevelingenmeer, one of the many wide bodies of water that weave between the islands and peninsulars on this unique part of the country. 

My daughter, being a keen walker, has an app on her phone with all the trails available wherever she goes, and she could see how we could have a lovely walk from where we parked through the nature reserve to the waterside. The photos below give an idea of what it was like.

Part of the walk, which was all like this with virtually no-one
else to disturb us. The dogs had a wonderful time.

And then we arrived at this beach. Who needs the sea when
you can have this? says Zoe.

Time to dispense with shoes and socks and go for a paddle.

And time for a cheeky pooch to pinch her mum's socks :)

Zoe had a lovely time rolling in the sand...yes...it did get
everywhere!

But with a face like this, is anyone going to mind?

On the way back to the car, we saw this old WWII bunker. Apparently this area has fifteen of them, which visitors can follow as a walk of a short, but quite challenging 1.5 km. Definitely something I would like to do in the coming months. It would be so interesting to learn about the bunkers' history and what part they played in the war. I understand that underground hikes are also possible but not being a fan of tunnels, I'm not sure I'd like to do that. We also saw a poster advertising a guided night walk to observe the local bats. Unfortunately, it was on the same day as our visit, so too difficult to arrange, but I'd love to join that in the future if they repeat it.

So that's it for this month, allemaal. September begins tomorrow and with it the hints of autumn, but I hope we'll have at least some of those golden days that characterise this time of year. We need a decent bridge between the inferno of these last months and the cold days of winter, don't we?