By Porter Lang
Wadlopen is the Dutch word for walking across the Wadden Sea at low water. This page covers where the practice comes from and who offers it. It gives no instructions. Routes, timing, equipment and conditions are for the organisations that lead the walks to explain.
Where it comes from
The Dutch Intangible Heritage inventory has an entry for wadlopen, filed under sport and play. It says that around 1956 Groningen students began exploring crossings to the islands on foot and gave slide lectures about their routes, and that the first tour, a winter walk across the frozen Wadden Sea, took place in 1962/63. It names Stichting Wadloopcentrum Pieterburen as the first wadloop organisation in the Netherlands. Around the turn of the century, the entry says, many people wanted to experience the Wadden Sea without the mudflats and deep channels, and organisers responded with smaller groups and milder tours. The entry notes that its text is being rewritten, so some details may have changed.
Who offers it
The regional tourism board’s booking page for Groningen lists several mudflat-walking organisations. It says each puts its own spin on the walk, and that you book directly with the organisation whose tour you want. General questions go to the tourist information office in Groningen. That page, and the organisations’ own pages, are the place to read what a walk involves.
Why the place is protected
UNESCO inscribed the Wadden Sea on the World Heritage List in 2009, with a minor boundary modification in 2011 and significant modifications in 2014. The property covers 1,143,403 hectares. UNESCO calls it “the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world”. It says up to 6.1 million birds can be present at the same time and an average of 10 to 12 million pass through each year, and that harbour seals, grey seals and harbour porpoises live there.
Dates in order
- Around 1956: Groningen students begin exploring crossings to the islands, according to the heritage inventory.
- 1962/63: the first tour, a winter walk, according to the heritage inventory.
- 2009: UNESCO inscription; 2011 minor modification; 2014 significant modification, according to UNESCO.
What we left out
Routes, timings, equipment, conditions and prices. Those belong to the organisations that lead the walks.
Quick answers
What is wadlopen? Walking across the Wadden Sea at low water. The Dutch heritage inventory files it under sport and play.
Who started it? The inventory says Groningen students began exploring crossings around 1956, with the first tour in the winter of 1962/63, and names Stichting Wadloopcentrum Pieterburen as the first wadloop organisation.
Is the Wadden Sea a World Heritage Site? UNESCO says it was inscribed in 2009 and describes it as the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world.
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