Glorious walk yesterday: Hoek van Holland to Kijkduin.

At Hook of Holland we said goodbye to the river – up until now the guiding principle of our walks – and welcomed the sea. Then turned our steps northwards to start following the North Sea coast. We aimed to end at Turrell’s Celestial Vault at Kijkduin, which we managed.

Had a new idea for mapping our route – happened when I was ruminating about rituals to say goodbye to a river – why not a poem. Felt hubris – what I know about poetry can be written on the back of a very small envelope. Did not let that stop me, wrote a few small ‘GeoGedichten’ or ‘Geographical Poems’. Rules of engagement: short, need not rhyme, done in max 5 minutes, capture location and mood, no second-guessing, no revisions later.

Plotted our walk and added the poems to the map this morning – this thing has promise. Poems are in Dutch …

Vital statistics:
Distance: 18,0 km
Duration: 5 uur, 46 minuten en 12 seconden
Average speed: 3,1 km/u
Min height: -3 m
Max height: 17 m
Total up: 156 m
Total down : 147 m
Total number of poems: 5
Total number of words in poems: 130
Total number of characters in poems: 848

Later: geographical poems are a thing, check here for example.

Of course I took some photo’s too.