Safari expedition at Zandwaaier at National Park Kennermerduinen - 7th., June, 2009

At around 1200 hrs we left home cycling towards the Zandwaaier and it was immediately evident when we saw the shaving of the sheeps that it is going to be a educational day. Of course, my kids saw the sheepdogs and could not leave them alone and must hug kiss and play with them. They were very friendly dogs.

When I spotted a half shaved sheep, for which our private biologist (Jackie) explained it was left like that so that the lamb still could recognize on which breast it has to hang for milk. Indeed, I saw a lamb turning towards the half shaved 'mummy'. You are never too old to learn new things, you see.

We continued to the information centre, bought our tickets and went on to the next activity that is processing of the shaved wool.

They got a simple lesson and 'voila' they were showing of their work very proudly.
If they have studied it properlythey could make like the pictures below. Well, we thought it would take ages and continued our expedition to enhance our knowledge on simple things, like catching tadpoles.. in the canal.




We marched further down hill to the canal close to the railway bridge connecting Zandvoort to Overveen. There were some kids already getting explanation on what they have caught from the canal water with their nets. Of course Priya and Ruben wanted to be part of it and caught and brought their catch to the ranger who explained further what type of animals could be found in the Dutch sweet water. We have learned that there are also leeches can be found in Dutch waters but, fourtunately they don't like human blood. Hmmm, time to take a dive?...never mind we need to continue our expedition in dry clothes.

We came than to the world of dragon flies and their life in this time of the year. A lot of mating and breeding of course. Especially we have spotted blue coloured 'waterjuffer' (smaller version of dragon flies) and dragon flies around the water area.

Next one was to look up in the tree using a mirror under your nose with your partner guide you through under the tree. Well, we were looking for bird nest but, saw wiggling of tree branches and leaves. It was beautiful day. Both of Priya and ruben scatched the leaves and barks of the tree with colour pencils. They have some talents to copy things, with the help of the nature of course.

When we moved on to a cross point where 2 ladies were distributing water on behalf of PWN wished us luck with spotting the Bison family (only family brought into the nature park in the Netherlands) in the wild. Apperantly they were good at avoiding human beings. When crossed the electrified barbed wire, a nature photographer came by to inform us if we could walk behind him silently we could spot the whole family in the 'wild' (5 adults and 2 calves, of course in the wild wild Dutch west cost, a little nature park we have compared to Taman Negara). Of course we were excited as the last time when Jackie came to spot with Gre' they were on the other side of the water like the size of Euro note. This time we saw indeed at close-up distance. Enjoy... Further we moved to the spotter's place where there we could utilize the binacolor to spot various local birds and wild lifes. We have spotted a lonely Bison (cow) with a new born calf, away from the big group. We have also saw a deer and a fox. It was a fruitful 5 hours where we initially decided to spend only 2 hours. we have walked about 3 kms and cycled about one hour.