As you may know, at coastlines the water comes and goes with the tides. In the north of Groningen, however, the coast is so flat that at low tide the ground of the sea appears and you can walk around on what usually is the bottom of the sea (the "wad"). Making a tour on the wad, which can be very muddy, is thus called "wadlopen" or in non-official dutchy English: "mud walking". For expierienced mud walkers it is even possible to walk the whole distance from the dikes to one of the Groninger islands, but for beginners a so-called "zwerftocht", a tour that has no fixed destination, is recommended, which is definetly tough enough in order to just explore the wad and to get this special feeling of walking in this "sea bottom desert".

In June me and 12 brave Grasp members went out for such a tour. Our first milestone: to reach the coast. We took the train to Baflo and then a private bus to the dike. Public transport is not frequent in this area, which is populated mainly by sheep and occasional mud walkers. The weather was as one would expect it on a day out in the Netherlands: it was raining heavily most of the time.

Waiting in the pouring rain for our wad-guides to arrive, we used the time to change clothes to a more appropriate outfit. After 3 hours we finally set our first step on the wad. First, we crossed the salt marshes, an area of land that is the result of land recalmation works, then we crossed a water ditch, became and continued through the real mud. Our guides told us about the plants, worms, mussels and other live forms in the wad, also a nature reservation area. Splattered with mud and soaked with rain, however, we had head back one hour earlier than planned. Our wad-guides were advised by their colleagues on the coast to return, because a thunderstorm was heading to us.

Back at the dike, we washed our muddy feet and legs, and could immediately enter the bus which picked us up and brought us back to Baflo. Waiting for the train in Baflo, we had a drink at a warm local pub and, finally, we took the train back to Groningen. Despite the bad weather, I remember an enjoyable and interesting day out, not least due to the participants not letting the weather spoil their good mood.