This is the story I put in the book with some foto's:
Westfriesedijk
Building this dyke in the north-west part of The Netherlands started over a thousand years ago. It is 126 km long circular dyke (80 miles) to protect the lands from the sea and surrounding moors.
Sheep are the only animals allowed to graze on the dyke, they keep the grass short without damaging the slope to much.
Nowadays about half of the dyke is still used as a water barrier, the other half is completely inland and remains there just as a monument. Many times the sea broke through the dyke and the dyke was repaired again, leaving an other curve to the outside and a small lake (wiel) inside the dyke.
The material (clay) used for the repair is taken from the local lands: "the nearest by, least damage principle" .
The curves and lakes make a beautiful scenery and they are often small nature reserves in our somewhat high-tech agriculture area.
A lot of bikers, including my self don't mind all the breakthroughs, riding the curves is fun and it's a beautiful scenery.
But a nice Sunday is not the time to be there :-(
bjorri, September 2005.
[This entry was edited by bjorri on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 9:12:43 AM.]