A Visit to Kabouterdorp, NL

Over the holidays we hiked in the Dutch dunes that protect us from the North Sea. It is a favorite place for us to practice our cross country land navigation skills with either the gps or the old fashioned compass and map method. Two years ago while we were conducting a similar practice I found a small village in the middle of the dunes. A strange bizarre place but filled with small stone people. On a dark overcast day in December we set out to see if we could find it again.

As I have written before in this blog, I have a way of finding strange things. I found this village two years hidden in the sand dunes amongst a group of pine trees. I needed to “use” a tree and thought that the clump of pine trees in the distance was an out of sight sort of place with some “cover” from the overhead satellites getting a picture of my bare butt. Yes, I do think of such things as satellites taking pictures of me while I am in nature doing my thing.

Hubby, was set on the mission of keeping our location on the map and did not follow me into what I soon found out was a vortex village for little people (gnomes, elves, Snow White and her merry men, and other unidentifiable sorts of little people). When I returned, I spouted about what was hidden in the trees and hubby informed me we had other things to do (I am sure he was thinking at that point that maybe I had a hit of wacky weed while I was doing my business). So, for the last two years I have mentioned each time we hiked the dunes that I would like to find the place again. I needed to verify that this village of little people does in fact exist and not only in my crazy head. Finally, the hubby relented to my constant requests to find the village. We planned a 8 km hike through the dunes and headed in the direction where we thought the village of little people existed.

“Found it!” I shouted out as my hubby came up from behind with the camera ready to capture these little people before they disappeared into the landscape.

This strange village seems to be frozen in time and yet these people have changed since the last I had visited. This village with a population of close to several hundred, seems to be experiencing an urban sprawl into the surrounding sand dunes. Many of the little people had migrated to the outer edges of the village and taken up working or just standing in the sand dunes.

Other little people were happy just hanging out at the local tree root.

Our visit ended all too soon. We had more hiking to complete and adventures to seek. We left the village so that these little people could come alive again in their village in the Dutch sand dunes. Because everyone knows that Little People turn to stone when humans are around…

How to find this village in the Dutch Sand Dunes? Enter the dunes at the De Zilk entrance. Follow the brick path straight until it crosses the canal and up a small hill. Walk about 50 meters more and then stop and walk off the path on the right hand side. Walk another 300 meters to the only green pine trees. There you will find the village.

Do you have a similar village close to where you live? Share in the comment section below.

© The Cedar Journal, 2019, all rights reserved.