A beautiful sunset
Island Stories #24: Sunset at Westenschouwen and a bit of history.
This evening, I walked over the dunes of Westenschouwen and enjoyed the sunset on the beach. This is what I saw:
On the left, you see two people walking on the outer banks, and about midway between those two and the sun, you may be able to see a sailing boat on the horizon. This is the top tourist season and one of the very few spots of the 21 kilometers of beach that can be reached by car.
It gets quieter if you walk a bit further.
You will also note the long double rows of wooden poles. In the Netherlands, you hardly see them outside Zeeland, but on this island, and the island of Walcheren to the south, there are more than 100,000 of them to reduce the eroding currents along the coast so that less sand is carried away.
We don’t know when the first of these rows was constructed, but historians noted that in 1540, Emperor Charles V ordered the replacement of a beachhead at Westkapelle on Walcheren. They are nowadays so characteristic for the landscape that they were recognized in 2005 as cultural heritage.
The wooden poles received less cultural recognition from the shipworm, a shell of no more than ten centimeters long but with destructive power. It drills holes in the wood, making them unstable. Therefore, most are nowadays made of tropical hardwood, which is more resistant to shipworms. If you ever make it to these islands, you will likely take some pictures of these rows of poles; nearly everyone does. I even have some photos of them on my wall.
I will end with one more picture; this one is from a few years ago on the same beach, a bit more to the northwest. Have a great day, and if you need a moment to relax, just think of this beach.
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Notes:
Read more about shipworms here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/tunneling-clam-bedeviled-humans-sank-ships-conquered-oceans-180961288/
https://www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/75631/Waarom-staan-er-zoveel-paalhoofden-in-Zeeland
https://www.pzc.nl/walcheren/het-verhaal-van-de-paalhoofden-verdient-een-breder-publiek~ab19ad6e/
Lovely sunset. Your photograph captured it perfectly. Our sunsets have been strange because of the wildfire smoke from the west. On Long Island jetties are built of stone to stop the sands from shifting. They do make great spots to fish. The poles seem to be another way but more likely not to last as long. With the hot weather here beaches are always crowded. Nice to see an empty one.
Great Sunset capture (-:
Thank you for bringing me the function of the wood poles, starting way back in time that saved the beaches of today, and the 'Ship-worm' (link) this morning.
This Ship-worm is an amazing natural (Global) problem to learn about. Those early 'Seafarers' did not know what ate them . . . and what followed, sailing in a Holy holed ship. So much destruction of tree growth to find a wood type that seemed resistant to the Ship-worm bite and hunger. Creosote is still with us, but I'm much less aware of it today.