Hallig Gröde 2004

Here We Go

On the first trip that morning, the MS Rungholt is carrying a bunch of day tourists to Hallig Gröde.

With the next trip, we and our luggage made it across to Gröde. In the background Hallig Oland can be seen. The is first image of a new series here about Hallig Gröde from this year's vacation. More will come during the next weeks. Enjoy!

Crossing

On board the MS Rungholt during the crossing from Schlüttsiel to Gröde, Hallig Habel comes into sight.

Habel is the smallest of the holms and only inhabited during spring and summer. It wasn't part of the original coastal protection programme and thus took heavy land losses til finally some fixation measures were taken.

First Evening

The mood of the first evening on Gröde was a bit gray and gloomy, but that's also typical for the North Sea.

Anyway, it was great to be here again, to enjoy the sea, the smell of salt, the wide view, the wind and the evening light.

At the Stone Edge

The next day with wonderful stormy weather, very typical for the North Sea.

Changing winds, sun, clouds, and rain in rapid succession. Here at the stone edge on the western side near the jetty is an ideal location to enjoy this (and get wet at some point ;-).

Stone Curve

Near the bath place south of the Knudtswarft, the stone edge is smoothly curving to the east.

This location already has been portraited here in the PhotoLog.

High Tide at the Stone Edge

Some time later, high tide is coming in and spilling over the stone edge.

Far from "Landunter" (not very far, though ;-), but the road along the stone edge to the west jetty is already flooded.

Rain is Coming

The downside of the fine stormy weather, from time to time clouds with heavy spells of rain come in from the sea.

As an umbrella would be most unfitting und inconvenient ;-), the best thing is to do like the sheep, turn your butt ... eh back ... into the wind and rain, and sit it out.

Clouds above the Kirchwarft (new)

Now this is a canonical picture of Hallig Gröde. ;-)

This day, with its marvelous, quickly changing cloud formations, sun and rain delivered just the right setting. [Update] As some people in the discussion at fotocommunity.de suggested, this is a new image of the same scene, more closely cropped. Also on fotocommunity.de you can find a alternate crop of this image with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Catwalk

Crossing over one of the broader ditches along the way from the western jetty to the houses.

A foot path leads directly from the Knudtswarft and the Kirchwarft to the jetty and watergate on the west side of Gröde, frequently used by the locals. The deeper and broader ditches along the way are bridged by catwalks such as the one shown here.

Wharf at the Watergate

Afternoon idyllic scene at the watergate.

At a convenient distance from the houses, near the watergate, there is a small wharf where the locals moor their boats.

Morning Light

Shortly after sunrise, the early morning light is simply gorgeous.

And enough of a motivation to get early out of bed. ;-) Luckily at the end of August, sunrise is moving to more friendly times. This image is a something of an experiment. The contrast range between the foreground and the sky was huge, so I used the digital blending technique to make a composite of two different exposures on slide film. Including correction while scanning the difference is approx. 3 EV.

House on Knudtswarft

Protected by a ring dyke, the houses on the Knudtswarft provide home for 17 people, the four families, which permanently inhabit the holm.

Two more, the teacher and her husband live on the Kirchwarf, next mound so to speak. All houses have thatched roofs, yielding a very typical North Friesia look, which fits very well into the landscape. By the way, the two windows shown here are part of our holiday appartment facing west with a spectacular view over Gröde, the sea, and the neighboring holms and islands.

Barn

Rural idyll, the upper part of the barn belonging to the house shown on the previous image.

Animals (except dogs ;-) are not to be found in each of the four barns belonging to the houses on the Knudtswarft. Cattle are only roaming the holm during the summertime, as guests too. Dairy farming was given up some time ago, the brent geese are eating too much of the gras during their visit in early spring.

Evening Light

Clouds and light scene while the sun is preparing to set in the west.

And again the clouds created a simply gorgeous sky, so that I was more or less compelled to take a series of photographs. ;-)

Glasswort

Averting one's gaze from the horizon, interesting details can be found on the ground. Such as these glasswort plants.

Glasswort (salicornia europaea) can be found in abundance in most of the aggradation zones on Gröde, most of them deeply red colored due to the accumulated salt in late summer and autumn. This plant, found in the excavated hole just north of the Knudswarft, shows the whole range of glasswort colors from fresh green over yellow to red.

Sunset 1

Day tourists heading back to their ship, the Hauke Haien, while the sun is setting.

After a longer break, back to the Hallig Gröde images. Don't worry, there are many more slide films waiting in the queue for scanning. ;-) It's just that my new toy requires some attention, too.

Sunset 2

And then even the excursion boat and the tourists are gone, nothing disturbs the peacefulness of the gorgeous sunset.

Somehwere I read: "If I could live my live a second time, I would [...] watch more sunsets. [...]" On Hallig Gröde, this can be realized. ;-)

Strange Days 1

And then came some strange days, sunny and warm, almost no wind, but extremly hazy.

On this day we neither could see the neighboring holms Langeneß and Oland nor the horizon. Gröde was encased by a grey-white monotonousness.

Strange Days 2

The hazy weather continued for several days.

All in all we had one and a half weeks of a very warm, almost hot, late summer. Sunshine, no clouds, no wind, calm and flat sea, haze. More like sunbathing, not photographing. Not your typical North Sea.

Glasswort on Dryland

The hot weather took its toll, slowly drying out the pools in the excavated hole north of the Knudswarft.

And so the glasswort plants, which normally have their "feet" in brackish water, have to cope which the drying mud.

Postman

And here we have another canonical picture of Gröde.

The postman - or better postboatman - on his way back from the "post office" to the wharf. Everything, including mail delivery and pickup, on the holms is run at a different pace than our hectic modern life.

Sunrise Birds

Most of the time I was wondering where all the birds were gone.

During our first visit to Gröde in spring, we were very much impressed by the enormous number of birds on the holm. In comparison, in September they seemed to be almost absent. Well, they are still there, as you can see here: an oystercatcher swarm at sunrise. The stripe of land on the left horizon is Hallig Habel, the wind generators are on the mainland.

Sailing

Now that must be fun, low tech sailing with this two master in the wadden sea.

The ship was sailing south of Gröde, most likely heading from the mainland towards the island of Amrum or beyond.

Butterflies and Dragonflies 1

During those strange days with only a wee bit wind, Claudia's garden was turning into a butterfly and dragonfly romping place.

In the lee of the house, the garden had almost no wind, and suddenly there were a vast number of butterflies and later also dragonflies. I'm not that much into these insects, so if you know the exact species, please let me know.

Butterflies and Dragonflies 2

And even more butterflies, which - like me - enjoyed the flowers in the gorgeous rural garden.

Lacking a macro lens, I dared to attach the 2x extender to my 70-200/2.8. This combination allows to fill the frame with the butterflies at the minimum distance of 1.4m. (This picture as well as the previous one is a crop, though.) Image quality is halfway decent, but of course this can't stand against a macro lens.

Butterflies and Dragonflies 3

After the butterflies came the dragonflies, zig-zaging through the garden.

To frame the dragonflies was quite difficult, only once in a while they would "sit down" on a flower.

Sky on Fire 1

Back to the landscape. The climax of this beautiful day, the sky on fire some time after sunset.

The sunset itself was not special at all, the sun disc being very bright, not suitable for photography. But then came this wonderful, colorful sky.

Sky on Fire 2

Close-up with the silhouette of Langeneß.

Catching this kind of sky, which completely fills your field of vision, on a photograph is an almost impossible task. A close-up such as this gives the glory of the gorgeous colors, but none of the vastness while standing at the edge of the sea.

Nightfall

And then the light faded away, leaving a deep purple reverberation on the sea.

There will be a break in the Gröde series, as a visit to another island is about to commence. As I certainly will post some images from there first, it will take some time before new Gröde images will be available. But there many more in the queue and waiting to the scanner. So stay tuned. ;-)

mj's photography