Zuid-Kennemerland NP – 30 van Zandvoort 18km

One of my goals for 2016 is to visit at least six National Parks in the Netherlands. Zuid-Kennemerland is the first of the six I’m visiting this year.

Zuid-Kennemerland NP

The National Park is located in the province North-Holland, west of the city Haarlem, within the municipalities of Bloemendaal, Velsen and Zandvoort. The area is characterized by its sand dunes, but there are also forests and estates (and a camping) in the park.

I won’t mention what kind of flowers you can find in the park as that’s usually not my main focus. Animals are more in my ballpark. I’ve managed to embarrass myself a little bit in front of my colleagues, let me share this story here as well so I can embarrass myself a bit further.

Before I visited the park, I read what kind of animals I could find there. I found out there is a super rare breed of European bison, called wisent. Needless to say when I visited the park and I found the “bisons” after half an hour. I was over the moon. Especially, since there were many of them and they were staying so close to the path.

19. 30 van Zandvoort

Turns out what I spotted wasn’t a wisent at all. They were Highland Coos. Remember how I used to live in Scotland for three years? How could I not have known?

Anyways, long story short: I didn’t spot wisents as I thought I had (google them to see how different they look), instead I had seen Highland Coos and my colleagues had to point this out to me…

18. 30 van Zandvoort

30 van Zandvoort

I visited this National Park as part of an organized event called the “30 van Zandvoort”. During this event you can choose either the 30 km route or the 18 km route, I’m not a seasoned hiker (yet) so I chose the shorter one.

30 van Zandvoort

This was my first time participating in such an event and it didn’t disappoint. I liked walking by myself along the masses to reach the goal, while country music was playing on my ipod to keep me going.

The 18 km hike took me 3 hours and 37 mins. Keep in my that The Netherlands are pretty flat so there are no hills to battle, apart from the occasional sand dune. I started at 9:00am and finished at 12:45pm. I did this walk in March, so as expected, the weather wasn’t great. It was overcast most of the time, but luckily it rained only for a few minutes. Enough stats, let’s move on to the actual route.

Zandvoort

The start of the route was in Zandvoort, more specifically at the Circuit Park, which is also where I parked my car.

01. 30 van Zandvoort

Beach

Once we had left Zandvoort, we could choose to either take the boardwalk or to walk on the beach. Obviously, I chose the beach which the weather gods didn’t seem to like as that was the moment it started raining.

02. 30 van Zandvoort

02. 30 van Zandvoort

It’s actually possible to walk from Hoek van Holland (the town where I live) all the way to Zandvoort/Bloemendaal Aan Zee over the beach. That’s something I’ve never tried before though. I have to start training my walking muscles a bit as these 18 km already left me a bit sore.

04. 30 van Zandvoort

04. 30 van Zandvoort

04. 30 van Zandvoort

You only succeed if your stamp book is filled with all the stamps from the route. This is not a daunting task as the posts are easy to find and everyone is headed in the same direction. The first stamp post was in Bloemendaal Aan Zee, a town famous for its beach bars (in summer though…).

07. 30 van Zandvoort

07. 30 van Zandvoort

07. 30 van Zandvoort

After the first stamp we walked a few more kms by the sea, until it was time for the 18 km people to say goodbye to the 30 km people. Their walk would continue over the beach and ours would take us to Zuid-Kennemerland National Park.

10. 30 van Zandvoort

10. 30 van Zandvoort

10. 30 van Zandvoort

10. 30 van Zandvoort

Highland Cows

14. 30 van Zandvoort

14. 30 van Zandvoort

14. 30 van Zandvoort

The Highland Cows deserve their own header since they were so prevalent in the area. There were brown, black and white highland cows as far as the eye could see at the start of dunes. Most people kept their pace and continued striding on towards the end, while I took my camera and shot numerous pictures of the cows.

17. 30 van Zandvoort

17. 30 van Zandvoort

Bird Lake

Along the route there was also a stop near a bird lake. I’m not sure which birds I was supposed to see here, but the lake is a very tranquil and peaceful area worth a visit. It would be a lovely area for a picnic for example.

21. 30 van Zandvoort

21. 30 van Zandvoort

21. 30 van Zandvoort

21. 30 van Zandvoort

21. 30 van Zandvoort

Forest & Camping

The environment changed a bit when we reached a forest…

26. 30 van Zandvoort

26. 30 van Zandvoort

.. But it changed drastically when we reached the camping.

28. 30 van Zandvoort

28. 30 van Zandvoort

Back to Zandvoort

To be honest, when we passed the camping the route became more boring. The “wisenten” (highland cows…) were my highlight, the lake was pretty and the forest was a nice change of scenery, but when we reached the camping the environment became repetitive. It really felt like the-way-back rather than a nice walk. When it starts feeling like that it takes so long before you actually get back.

The area we walked through was bit of a blur to me and I stopped paying attention. My only goal was to reach the finish.

30. 30 van Zandvoort

30. 30 van Zandvoort

30. 30 van Zandvoort

30. 30 van Zandvoort

Finish

Which I did around 12:45pm! As I said before I never participated in events like this, or completed walks of this magnitude so I couldn’t have possibly predicted the way it would feel to complete it. Let me tell you: it feels good!

34. 30 van Zandvoort

34. 30 van Zandvoort

Especially holding the medal is amazing!

36. 30 van Zandvoort

Conclusion

I will definitely participate in more of these events. They’re a great way to explore the scenery while also trying to complete something. In fact, a few weeks later I walked the “Bloesemroute” more about that walk in the next post!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

7 thoughts on “Zuid-Kennemerland NP – 30 van Zandvoort 18km

  1. OMG, they have Highland Cows (or as the Scots say, Heilan Coos) on Holland??? How did I live there and not know this! I don’t think I actually got to any national parks during my six months there. Too much to see for such a tiny nation!

    1. I didn’t believe it when I saw it either, that’s why my mind told me they were buffaloes 😉 I can tell you have some unfinished business in Holland, so you should come back for a visit!

  2. Leuke post! Ik ben een poosje geleden ook in zo’n gebied geweest vlak bij Den Haag, echt leuk om ook eens kennis te maken met de Schotse Hooglanders zonder daar voor naar Schotland af te reizen 🙂 . Soms vergeet ik wel eens dat Nederland ook veel bijzondere en mooie plekjes heeft en dit plekje is daar een goed voorbeeld van zo te zien!

    1. Dank je, Daphne! Ik ben dit jaar voor het eerst Nederland eens goed onder de loep aan het nemen en er zijn zo veel prachtige locaties! Een week geleden heb ik bijvoorbeeld de Waddenzee bezocht – die post komt over een paar weken online – en dat was ook echt heel mooi! Er valt nog veel te ontdekken in dit “kleine” landje 🙂

    1. Ik vond het ook echt heel bijzonder om de schotse hooglanders van zo dichtbij te spotten. Zelfs in Schotland staan ze vaak ver weg in een afgesloten wei! Hopelijk vind je ze nog ergens in Nederland! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.