Goodbye to the sea
“I’m stuck!” I thought one morning. No motivation, no inspiration…
Three months of lockdown and working from home, restrictions and abnormality had left their mark and paralyzed zest for life and energy. Gradually even the memory of how it was before threatened to fade. My co-worker friend felt the same way. So we made the daring decision to use a long weekend for a camping trip to Julianadorp/NL. And so, on a Wednesday afternoon, a mobile home and a mini camper made their way to the sea.
In the evening we stood on the nice and quiet “Camping Julianadorp aan Zee” and built the awning on the Kangoo. Around us only relaxed people. One had the feeling that nothing bad can come here. The fact that the sanitary building had not yet been released only affected us peripherally, even if that meant surviving three days with cat washing and a bucket toilet. Even rainy hours couldn’t spoil our mood.
Finally live again! The smell of fresh grass, sand under the soles of your feet, the sound of the rolling waves, canals fringed with reeds, morning fog on the wide fields, wings of white gulls gleaming in the radiant blue, the evening concert of frogs, the merry and lovely chirping of small birds in the early morning, the wonderful scent of wild roses in the dunes… oh, and so many more impressions! Being a kid again and just being outside.
One night a violent thunderstorm swept across the square, the wind tugged at my tent, heavy rain drummed on the car and collected in water bumps on the tent roof, Mowgli snuggled up close to me and felt safe in my arms.
Experience and do something, move, have good conversations…
We had hired bikes, an electric Bakfiets for me, and zipped along the dune paths between Julianadorp and Den Helder. At first, Mowgli wasn’t too keen on being carried around in the cargo basket while strapped in. But soon he contentedly held his licorice dog nose in the wind.
A few times I ended up offside because such a cargo tricycle is not so easy to steer. While Mowgli just looked puzzled, these little accidents left me with big bruises.
Mowgli’s enthusiastic eye expression while playing ball on the beach, his funny grunt while swimming in the sea! – Unfortunately, I didn’t pay enough attention to the sun and got a bad sunburn. I know it’s not a trivial offense 🙁
On Sunday afternoon I unlocked my apartment door again, ragged, damaged, with seawater-strengthened hair – but happy!