Moving on south towards
Gent we decided to take a look at some of the more remote parts in
the South-West of Holland. This meant taking the motorway past The
Hague, Delft and Rotterdam and we were amazed at the size of
Rotterdam's port and industrial areas. The petrochemical works are
enormous and densely packed and we only saw part of it. Beyond where
we turned off there were miles more of port and industry including
the massive 'Europoort' area.
As we crossed to the
area known as Overflakkee we had our first sight of the 'Deltaplan' a
massive flood prevention scheme created after the disastrous floods
of 1953 that killed nearly 2,000 people and flooded 150,000 hectares
of land (see http://www.deltawerken.com/Deltaworks/23.html
for details of the scheme). We drove over the Haingvliet Dam and
sluices and a short drive across a peninsular brought us to the
Brouwersdam. The main road was below the dikes and we couldn't see
the sea but I noticed a sign to the North Sea Road and decided to
follow it. Immediately we came to a vast area of beach with lots of
people and all sorts of activities going on. We parked up and went to
investigate. Families were flying kites, a group of land yachts
(three-wheeled karts with a sail) were completing a circuit and
parakarts (three-wheeled karts powered by the driver flying a large
kite) whizzed past us at great speed. Meanwhile many people such as
us watched the fun.
After crossing another
peninsular (originally an island) we came to one of the main
installations of the Deltaplan – the storm surge barrier of
Oosterschelde. Rather than a dike or dam, this is a 3 km long series
of sluice gates, 65 of them, each 40 metres long. The tides are
allowed to flow through the barrier but it is closed during storms
and extra-high tides. Completed in 1986, it cost over 2.5 billion
Euros – a vast amount of money at that time. It is a very
impressive feat of engineering and it was great to see the tide
rushing in through the barrier as we drove over it.
We headed for
Oostkapelle where we had identified a stelleplatz and found that
there were three farms next to each other offering 'Mini Camping' as
the Dutch call aires or stellplatzen. We found the one that we had
selected, Pomona and parked up. At €12 per night and with
electricity, toilets and showers, it was good value.
Photos: Land yachts
with parakarts in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment