Tag: National Park Weerribben-Wieden

Canoeing in the Weerribben Fall 2022

November 13, 2022

We have spent so much time in this beautiful location canoeing that it might seem that it is our favorite place to canoe within The Netherlands. This last trip was the first long one in our new canoe and the last one (at the time we didn’t know it) in our VW Caddy/camper. Now, looking back it seems bitter sweet.

As most of our regular readers know we haven’t been out canoeing much in the last two, wait, three?, years. Life events change things and we changed with them and canoed when we could, realized this year the beautiful “Cedar” needed a new home and with diesel prices soaring and our high road taxes on the larger vehicle, I guess 2022 was a year of lifestyle changes for us.

Since I have written so much about the Weerribben in the past I will just highlight our trip in pictures and video. Enjoy your weekend wherever you are in the World!🛶

The fall colors were just starting to showcase.
Early morning paddle into the Weerribben National Park. The only other paddlers were these ducks.
The wind was still and the paddle quite, seemed that all was perfect in the universe.
Having a bit of fun, sporting my Trailspace.com top 25 reviewer 2021 hat. Thank you to anyone who helped my reviews gain points for this honor. It has been a real morale booster for me being selected in the top 25 reviewers these last two years.
The reflection
What a beautiful morning!
Any paddler that takes photographs understands, it isn’t easy, but a still, no wind day, is picture perfect and almost effortless.
Fall is one of my favorite times to paddle but the weather can change quickly. The wind blows the trees lose leaves and the paddles are then resting.
Then the wind starts to settle and we are back on the water.
Another early morning still wind paddle.
The wind picks up and we just ride without paddling.
The Hubby always has a firm handle on directing the canoe. To think back now that he first started by watching YouTube videos and us doing circles in a nearby lake still makes me chuckle, but he has become very skilled and I am proud to have him as my paddle partner.
End to a week long canoe vacation. Bittersweet.
Our last (we didn’t know then) trip with the VW Caddy. We will miss all the room it had for our gear.

That concludes this recap from our Weerribben canoe vacation. Change is good and we have more adventures coming.

*** If you paddle (canoe or kayak) we would love to hear about your favorite fall paddle location. Please share your location in the comments section.

© The Cedar Journal, 2022, all rights reserved.

Birders?

August 3, 2020
The Hubby practices the birding stance.

We love nature and we love exploring it in our human powered floating vessel. We have joked over our years of blogging that we might upend the birding world with some of our sightings. Please don’t fear bird bloggers we will not become the new birding community influencers with our most recent outdoor adventure.

We started our morning riding our bikes from our camping to the bird observation tower that is located on the far Eastern edge of the Weerribben National Park. We rode fast to try to beat the rain clouds. we suffered a short delay as I experienced an unexpected acrobatic bike fall that resulted in road rash and a very bruised ego. At 54 I don’t recover nearly as quickly from such events.

On our bike route, and within view of the observation tower, the Hubby spotted his first photo note worthy bird of the day, a spoonbill wading in the water.

Our first bird of the day, a spoonbill.

Once we reached the tower we were greeted by another birder. The enthusiastic older man was instantly impressed with the Hubby’s Nikon camera. Well… at least in the camera brand. He was also a Nikon owner but had a huge birder zoom lens attached. I have learned that talking about lens size in the birding world is a great conversation ice breaker. Soon the Hubby and this older birder were discussing all the birds that the man had spotted from this tower on past visits.

As the guys were discussing the finer points of the birding world I took this photo of a small reed bird.

Action shot of a reed bird.

Soon the other bird observer announced it was time for coffee and left us alone on the tower. The wind blew but the rain storm didn’t appear as we watched a pair of storks fly overhead.

A stork flying past the observation tower.

Once we had enough of looking at birds from the tower we biked to another location with a bird observation point. Before we arrived we had our best close up sighting of the day, a stork.

This stork was hanging around in a backyard of someone’s house.
The other observation deck. Not nearly as clean or as nice as the tower we had just visited.
The end of our birding tour brought us into Kalenberg and this site. A stork nest and the stork. No babies were seen.

©️ The Cedar Journal, 2020, all rights reserved.