Dwingelderveld sheep

Most of the sheep of this flock at the Dwingelderveld was in the shade of the tree. When we stood still for a while to watch them they noticed us and started to turn their heads towards us.

I´m linking to Eileen´s Saturday´s Critters.

Skywatch Friday

This image is from last Sunday, seen from the bench where we sat for a while during our hike in the Dwingelderveld Nat.Park.

I'm linking to Skywatch Friday.

Warning sign

The last few km to the Dwingelderveld Nat.Park are on small country roads like this. Here we had just passed a camping site. Signs warn for kids crossing the street.

I'm linking to signs, signs.

Mushrooms

We spotted quite some mushrooms yesterday during our hike in the Dwingelderveld National Park..

...Autumn must be around the corner, what do you think? We are enjoying lovely late-Summer weather here though. Let's hope it will last a bit :)

Dwingelderveld sheep

This is one of two flock of sheep that graze the grounds of the Dwingelderveld National Park, a 4,000 hectares big area with mainly mosses, grasses and wet heathland.

The Drenthe Heath Sheep (Drents Heideschaap in Dutch) is a domesticated breed of sheep originating in the Netherlands. It is raised primarily for vegetation management, and is said to be the oldest surviving breed of sheep in Europe.

I'm linking to Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

Dwingelderveld visitor centre

This is the entrance of the Dwingelderveld National Park visitor centre in Ruinen. The big round wooden building with its grass roof is the perfect start for a hike or cycling trip.

And it pays to have a look inside! The large table with a scale model of the N.P. is part of a permanent exhibition that tells about the specific nature and animals that live there. Then there are a lot of things for sale: hiking and cycling routes, birds books, locally made marmelades and honey, postcards, etc

In the Dwingelderveld today

During our hike today in the Dwingelderveld National Park in Drenthe we met this kind gentleman with his carriage and horse. When he saw that I was going to take a photo him he stopped..

..so I could take my time for a few photos. Look at this beautiful horse!

And after a chat they went on to enjoy a wonderful day.

A tasty souvenir

From a variety of locally made products that the Dwingelderveld N.P. visitor centre had for sale, we chose this jar of delicious preserves to take home with us. "Brummels" by the way is the dialect word for "bramen", and means "blackberries" in English. Yummy! :)

Switch off your mobile phones

This warning sign along a sandy path in the centre of the Dwingelderveld National Park told us to switch off our mobile phones as we were entering the interference-free zone of the nearby Dwingeloo radio telescope...

...which we passed later that day. The "Dwingeloo Radio Observatory" is a single-dish radio telescope with a diameter of 25 m. Completed in 1956 it was the largest radio telescope in the world at that time, and was operational in an official capacity until the year 2000. Nowadays the telescope is a Dutch heritage monument, and is still used for projects by amateur astronomers and radio amateurs.

I'm linking to signs, signs.

Dwingelderveld N.P.

April 27 is a national holiday in the Netherlands as we celebrate the birthday of our King Willem Alexander, who turned 48 years old today (which makes him exactly 10 days younger than me :) !). Because of the beautiful weather we decided to spend this year's King's Day in the Dwingelderveld National Park and walk one of the trails there.

The N.P. is located in the province of Drenthe and was founded in 1991. It covers about 37 km² (14 sq miles), and is the largest wet heathland of Western-Europe.