National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen and Key Planning Decision · 401 km from Butjadingen
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
690 km
Riding-time estimate
10 h 29
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
690 km from Butjadingen to Butjadingen, about 10 h 29 of riding. It goes by way of National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen, Key Planning Decision, back through National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen and Nordholz. The coast is the point of it.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen
At low tide, the sea simply leaves. Twice a day the North Sea withdraws from the Wadden Sea, exposing vast flats of mud and sand, channels and banks, where birds feed by the hundreds of thousands and seals haul out to rest. The Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park protects this coast, and together with the Dutch and Danish parts it forms the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2009.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen is where the day begins. Next is National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen.
2. National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen
Here the Wadden Sea comes right up against the dyke. This is the coast of the Wurster Nordseeküste, between the Weser and Elbe estuaries, a country of low sea walls, drained farmland and wide skies, and the mudflats outside the dyke are part of the Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park. Together with the Dutch and Danish parts of the Wadden Sea, the area is a UNESCO World Heritage site, valued above all for the sheer scale of the tidal flats and the millions of birds that pass through on migration. When the tide goes out, it goes a very long way.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen comes up 67 km in.
3. National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen
Behind the dyke at Dornumersiel the land is flatter than a billiard table and nearly as green, and on the other side the sea comes and goes twice a day across a vast expanse of sand and mud. This is the Wadden Sea, the largest system of intertidal flats in the world, stretching along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The Lower Saxony section is a national park and part of a World Heritage site, and at low tide you can walk out across the seabed towards the East Frisian islands, ideally with a guide who knows the channels and the tides.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
134 km in you reach National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen. Next is Key Planning Decision.
4. Key Planning Decision
Where the Ems river meets the sea near Emden, the land runs out of ideas. East Frisia is flat and wide, laced with dykes, drainage ditches and wind turbines, and the horizon is a ruler line drawn under a very large sky. The label here is an administrative one, a planning decision, so it points to no single monument. What it describes is the landscape around the Dollart bay and the Wadden Sea shore west of Emden, where the sea has repeatedly eaten into the land and been pushed back by people with spades and later with machines.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen closes the day.
Leg by leg
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen to National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen → National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen to Key Planning Decision
National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen → Key Planning Decision is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Key Planning Decision to back through National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen
Key Planning Decision → back through National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen to Nordholz
back through National Park Wadden Sea Niedersachsen → Nordholz is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.