visiting the island of borkum was a first for me. i've never made vacations on an island before, and i've never been to the north sea as well. a friend of mine was residing on borkum for 6 months and she invited me to come visit her and get to know 'her' island. my parents and me went for it, as we always wanted to see what the north sea has to offer. and it did not disappoint! the wadden sea is something i had yet to experience, the baltic sea has close to no tidal movements, therefore it was new to me to see the same beach in different conditions throughout the day. unfortunately, because of unideal weather conditions, we didn't go on a mudflat hiking tour, but i'm sure i will get around that next time i'll be visiting.
the journey & stay up there made me want to discover the region east frisia even more and i have a plan for next year already doing a little hiking trip from wilhelmshaven to emden and then revisiting borkum for a few days. it's still in a planning phase, but let's hope i can make it true :) it would also be some kind of discovery for myself - can i handle a trip on my own, will i have some eye opening experiences - these kind of things.
so the crossing to borkum island was rather unagitated and calm, but i heard that it can also be very bumpy and uneasy. here are some pictures i shot before we landed at the borkum harbour.
on our way out of the harbour of emden. the river ems flows into the north sea and is the connection to borkum as well. it functions as a tidal river that splits up in west ems and east ems before the north sea waters gulp it down.
there is still land to see, but i almost looks like the sky and the water melt into each other.
we passed by cute sailing ships.
and dutch police boats. the netherlands are very close here, in fact, borkum is closer to dutch borders than anything else in the german north sea.
on the dutch side of the borders is a huge coal-fired power station, which is actually not a pretty sight. but it still makes for an interesting coastal motive. from borkum you also can see the power station.
i have a tiny obsession with boats and ships on the sea.
we had wonderful weather as soon as we were out on the open sea.
and borkum soon was in sight, too!
as we arrived we got the first glimpse of how low tide looked. when the tide is high, you cannot stand on the tip of the groyne anymore. and the beach behind it, is also gone.
i loved the look of those flatlands. like a desert, but with much more water.
the tiny dots on here are birds and seals. seals are especially well known on borkum, because they inhabit the sandbanks around it. we even made a tour to one of those banks to see them up close! i've never seen wild seals before and this was such a special experience.
rolling into the harbour.
we met up with my friend and her boyfriend in the evening to eat something nice and talk about their experiences and life on the island.
this building is called 'secret love' and was formerly used as some kind of greeting commitee. when a boat sailed by or a ship they were hoisting up the flags of the ships going by and also greeted them via morse code and radio. now it's a restaurant ( we weren't inside it, though ).
everything was really calm that evening.
cormorants enjoying a nice drying time. in the back are the outskirts of rottumeroog, a little island that is inhabited. the navigational beacon is always in sight.
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