The Dutch Wadden Sea was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2009. One of the activities around the Wadden Sea you can participate is the mudflat walking. A guide for this recreation is mandatory and the routes are organized. The walk has to be timed with the tides. I participated mudflat walking from Holwerd to Ameland in July 2012. It was an unique activity. It was said the route is about 10 km long and it takes about 3 hours of walk. My group did it in about 4,5 hours. In the beginning the ground was really muddy, it was difficult to take the feet out of the mud. Later was the ground sandy but the water level was higher. Sometimes I had to hold my backpack above the head because the water was chest high. At the last part I had so much pain in my legs I could hardly walk. When we arrived at the island I had almost tears in my eyes, I was so happy I could rest. After short relaxation and refreshing we walked further across the green Ameland to the boat. I'm very glad it wasn't raining. I didn't expect it would be so hard, but I enjoyed the mudflat walking very much. It's really interesting experience and I would like to repeat it in the future.
