Since we were camping at the beach we climbed over the large dunes and had a quick morning swim.
We spent the day visiting the Delta Park which was an exhibition and theme park all in one. There was a boat ride around the project, aquarium, seal show, exhibitions on the delta works and mussel farms, an area where we could visit part of the dam, films about the works, water slides, whale skeletons, and hurricane simulator. We zoomed around all day trying to see all the cool things.
I think I came out of the exhibitions even more confused with such a complex water system throughout the entire country.
The Delta project started after the sea broke through one of the Dykes in 1953 causing major flooding. To stop it from happening again they started a major project to stop storms and extra high tides breaking the dykes. As well as gigantic sand dunes, now the entire country has either huge massive dykes and sea barriers throughout with complex systems in place to allow fresh water from the rivers to reach the sea, to protect the country from potential flooding and at the same time allowing boats in and out and to keep the marine live thriving as best possible.
On top of the dunes at Zoutelande. They have these long walls going out to sea to stop the erosion
Taking a dip. It was only after I got in I realised why I was the only one swimming - it was freezing and there were jellyfish in the water lol.
This is the sea dike in the town of Westkapelle along the coast of Zeeland. During the war in Oct 1944 the dike was bombed to drive out the Germans which had taken over this area.
Many mammoth bones (and other prehistoric bones) were found in the Eastern Scheldt during the construction of the storm surge barrier
There were very in depth exhibitions about the project. This is a picture of the dike in 1953 when it broke causing many towns in Zeeland to flood
There was a big pool of seals and they had a seal show
We did a cruise out into the harbour where we saw up close some of the delta works
This is pier 66 which was to be used on the storm surge barrier if anything else went wrong with the other ones. Its now used as a climbing wall.
Mussel farm
The hurricane simulator went to 170kph to show what the dikes must be able to withstand
A friendly stringray in the aquarium
This is the size of a sperm whales penis
This fin whale stranded itself on one of the nearby beaches
The storm surge barrier that runs all along the dutch coast. The gates stay open all the time and let the normal tidal flow in and out of the harbour. When there are storms the gates are left shut to protect the land inside the barriers from flooding.
The tide is heading out at quite a force
We were able to walk inside and over the entire barrier and see how it all worked.
These are all the barriers, locks etc built in Zeeland as part of the project
This is one of the giant vibrating rods they used to stabilise the sea floor before they started laying down the concrete matts.
These are big concrete mats which were laid to put the foundations of the barrier on
The barrier
For stopped for dinner in Middleburg where we found this massive windmill
Sunset over Middleburg
No comments:
Post a Comment