Going to the Markerwadden, a new piece of the Netherlands, is already cool. But being invited by Rijkswaterstaat to join them on their trip to the Markerwadden is simply amazing. This is my adventure: The Markerwadden.
It all started on a normal day. It was September 8, 2020. I opened the Instagram app and recheived a notification. It was a message. And wow! It was a message from Rijkswaterstaat! They said: "Hi Mike, we came across your photos and we are impressed! We want to invite you to visit the Markerwadden with us." Ofcourse I said YES! We had a little chat and after a few weeks it was finally time to go.
Rijkswaterstaat is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands. They are working daily on a safe, liveable and accessible Netherlands. Its part of the goverment in the netherlands. They are working on roads for cars, they keep the netherlands save by working on our sea's and keep people updated in extreme weather conditions.
At the website of the Dutch Society for Nature Conservation they wrote this about the Markerwadden: Dutch Society for Nature Conservation and Rijkswaterstaat (the executive agency of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) are restoring one of the largest freshwater lakes in western Europe by constructing islands, marshes and mud flats from the sediments that have accumulated in the lake in recent decades. These 'Marker Wadden' will form a unique ecosystem that will boost biodiversity in the Netherlands.
So the Markerwadden are a few islands made by people for our ecosystem. In the middle of the water they build these islands. These islands are now the place for many birds and other animals. The lake floor was only 2-4 meters deep. Because of that there weren't a lot of animals anymore in that water. With the build of these islands that changed.
In the early morning we drove with our car to the meeting spot. When I arrived a few other photographers were already waiting. The people from Rijkswaterstaat also arrived. After a few minutes everyone who joined the walk was there. We got out own name cards and got information about the islands. It was kinda cold that day and it rained a little bit. We stepped into a boat. This boat brought us to the island. It was not a big boat and the waves were kinda high because of the hard wind. The boat went from left to right, and back and forth. Big waves splashed into the windows and the horizon of the water was going up and down if you looked trough the windows. When I became a little bit nauseous, we luckily arrived at the island.
At the island we went with the whole group of photographers into a little house. Their we got even more information about the island and how special it was. After that, we explored the whole island! I started with a few other photographers but after a few minutes I went my own way. I saw almost the whole island. It was cool to see. After a few hours our boat almost went back again, so we had to run back across the whole island to be on time. Luckily we made it. At the Markerwadden we also recorded some insta stories for Rijkswaterstaat! My face was on the Instagram page from Rijkswaterstaat. This was really cool and also the first time I showed my face to all my instagram followers. These instagram stories I made were a few questions about the island and I told the followers of Rijkswaterstaat about the markerwadden. I had to improvise a bit, and it was really weird to see myself at such a big instagram account afterwards. Im not showing these stories in this blog, it is kinda embarrasing ;)
The photos on social media.
All the photos that I made at the Markerwadden are free to use for Rijkswaterstaat. Rijkswaterstaat are having the rights about my photos that I made there, and that's kinda cool because they can use my photos whenever they want! (with credits ofcourse) This means that it is even possible to see my photo pop up on different websites, blogs and papers from rijkswaterstaat. This actually happened a few times now. If you google The Markerwadden, a few photos made by me pop up. My photo is also on the socials of Rijkswaterstaat and on other websites that are about water.
Screenshots from the Rijkswaterstaat Facebook page and the website Waterenklimaat.nl
More Photos.
Here are a few more photos from this adventure!
Information used from: Rijkswaterstaat.nl, Natuurmonumenten.nl and Waterenklimaat.nl