Circumnavigation of "De Kreupel" at 9 march.
The Dutch have a reputation where it concerns the creating of new land. Normally they create land for human use. This time however they created a forbidden area.
When the shippinglane "Lemmer - Amsterdam" needed some maintenance to make it suitable for bigger ships with less bottom-clearance, they started thinking about what to do with the 3 milj. m3 of sand which would be the result of this operation.
Happily they discovered a shoal in the neighbourhood, named "Kreupel". According to a map from 1568-1573, made by Cristiaan Grootens, this area used to be once an island where fisherman could find some shelter in bad weather. Years later the island disappeared under the waterlevel and was a shoal since.
Click on the map to enlarge
This shoal seemed the perfect place to dump the sand. And so they did: 2 sandbanks were the result having an area of 70 ha. These islands have a length of 1500m and a width of 500m and were also named "De Kreupel".
The sandbanks are created in such a way that birds can breed and rest there. Around it is constructed a stone dam leaving shoals next to the banks and giving the banks protection for waves.
The creating of the island probably has consequences for the fisherman who used to install their nets at the shoal before. For birds however this has proved to be a paradise, considering the number of birds increased in a spectacular way. Since the construction this perfect resting-place, having nearby places where the birds can find enough food, now is used for breeding by common tern (NL:visdief), Least Tern (NL:dwergstern), Little Ringed Plover (NL:kleine plevier) en seagulls (NL:meeuwen). It is said that 112 bird-species are counted yet.
"De Kreupel" is located 4,5 km from Andijks´ shore. It is managed bij staatsbosbeheer (www.staatsbosbeheer.nl) AND access is not allowed to us.
Part of the plan was the construction of an extra island in the neighbourhood which could be used for recreation. Searching the WWW it became not clear to me wether this island was to be realized or not. The problem was the budget available as well as objections against recreation in the neighbourhood of this birdsparadise.
Jos, a clubmember, discovered the existence of the island and proposed to take a look. This mini-expedition took place saterday 8 march; a windy day, offering challenging conditions, as well as a feeling that people probably got in the past when discovering new land.
We started at Medemblik heading for the empty sea: no trace of an island to be seen yet. We were pushed by a 5Bft. sw-wind; offering nice surfing-conditions.
At first Rob was not convinced at all that the island really exists as it was not mentioned on maps and could not (yet) be found with Google Earth. However being halfway, the island became visible and he had to believe it was not only a virtual island.
We rounded the northside of the island where we discovered quite a lot of Cormorants (NL:aalscholvers). New to us was to see these birds having made huge nests on the ground. We are used to see them having nests in trees which gradually die because of their faeces.
Other birds we could not see today, probably as a result of the windy weather. Surely we need quiet weather to be able to look through binoculars from our kayaks.
Arriving at the southend we discover that there is another, new island under construction. Could this be the proof that the recreational island is coming at the end??
We find some windshelter behind a big machine and after a quick rest, becoming cold, we start heading back. The wind increased in the meantime giving big, steep waves building up against the island. Very nice indeed. It looks like big surf, something I would not expect over here.
Now we face the challenge to cover 9km almost straigth against the wind. In this conditions I regret having taken with me a Baidarka today which, unloaded, offers its big bow to the wind everytime when passing a wave. The result is the only thing I hate in seakayaking: leecocking. Meaning: hard work to keep on course with this big expedition kayak. I am very happy now that I tailorfitted the Baidarka for perfect foot, knee and hip-contact. I doubt it if I could ever have managed to stay on this course over 9km without it.
In the distance we see the silhouet of Medemblik at the horizon: It seems to be there for ever, as it only approached us very, very slowly.
