The North Sea at Cuxhaven, Germany
In August, during a trip to Germany we took a trip to Cuxhaven. It is a tourist town on the the North Sea of Germany. Although it rained when we arrived, the sun eventually came out giving us a scenic view of the North Sea. The attraction to coming at this particular time of day is that at low tide, the sea recedes and you can walk for miles across the mud flats on the bottom of the ocean.
The beach is a popular tourist spot. As the tide came in, people appeared from everywhere to enjoy the beach.
Cuxhaven is the northern most point of the district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River, a huge river which flows to Hamburg and beyond. It’s a tourist town and important point in seagoing commerce.
The mud flats is an inter-tidal zone that runs all the way along the coast from Denmark through to the Netherlands. This shallow belt of mudflats and barrier islands is an UNESCO World Heritage site primarily for the diversity of bird life. Twice a day, at low tide, the tide recedes about 15 km revealing the ocean floor and islands.
It was quite windy and just started to rain when we got there. The low tide lasts for four hours; so you have a window of several hours where the ocean recedes enough so you can walk out on the ocean floor.
Here’s the view looking towards the shore.
In the distance is a small island.
The small tidal island of Neuwerk which is 1.2 square miles. It is in the Wadden Sea on the North Sea and has a population of 32, according to Wikipedia. According to Wkipedia, “At low tide one can reach the island on foot or on a Wattwagen, a horse-drawn mud flat coach, from Cuxhaven. A row of poles on the mud flats marks the way. The path includes some elevated cages. These are rescue pods. Should high tide catch a walker far from shore, the walker can climb into the pod and wait for the tide to recede, or trigger a flare. Triggering the flare summons a rescue boat; rescue involves a fee and non-negligible fine.”
We arrived too late to try to walk to to the island but could see people returning from the island ahead of the tide returning. It is recommended only to hike to the island with an experienced guide due to hazards along the way.
The Elbe River is one of the major rivers of Central Europe with major shipping lanes from Hamburg and beyond. it begins in the mountains of the Northern Czech Republic and transverses across the Chez Republic and through Germany flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven. The river is 680 miles long and is the fourth largest river basin in Europe. The basin includes the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and Poland.
In the distance you can see the huge cargo ships which have left Hamburg on their way to the North Sea and their destinations..
Here’s the water coming in. You can see people returning from the Island with the tide rising behind them.
We enjoyed our trip to the town of Cuxhaven and the North Sea. It was interesting to walk across the floor of the ocean; then see the tide return.
