Follow that fox!

At 04.15, or in other words 'silly o'clock' Peter and I got up, packed our bag, left the hotel in Hoofddorp and set course for the dunes south of Zandvoort (in Dutch: Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen).

We knew that we had to walk for 45 minutes (3 km), from the carpark to the fox-location, so we were prepared for that.
The car was parked at 5.30, we got our entrance ticket from the ticketmachine and walked through the gate. Immediately we were welcomed by a few fallow deer. Exciting stuff. It still was very dark and silent in the woods and when you then see those animals suddenly near you, well, that creates a great atmosphere. Our safari had begun.

We walked the 3 km. While getting there we saw may many deer. Mostly small groups of female deer with calves but we also encountered soem male deer. The older ones mostly alone, the younger males formed small groups. Great to see.

But unfortunately no foxes yet. Not one, not even a glimpse.
Bad weather set in and we sheltered for the rain for a while. Heavy showers and drizzle for sometime during those first hours of the day.
We got hungry as time went by. We didn't have breakfast yet, just a few peppermint-mentos with water.
We walked further and further in the direction of the sea. We located a few beach huts on google maps. Most of them would open at 09.30, but one of them (Havana Beach) would open at 09.00 already. We picked that one as our destination. We arrived there after a very long walk at exactly 09.00 am and had a very nice breakfast! Croissants, toast, fruit, coffee, yoghurt, you name it. It all tasted fantastic. By then we had walked 9 km in total. It was a well earned breakfast.

With new energy and empty plates, we went back to the dunes, to the foxes.
Well, long story short: We never saw a fox the whole day. We walked and walked, asked a park ranger for tips, waited silenty on several spots (even fell asleep for a little while) but with no result at all. Not even a shadow of a wobbling tale. Nothing!
The fallow deer kept on coming though, and we made some great photos of them.  A bit disapointend but after a great day nevertheless, we were back at the carpark, around 14.30, after we'd walked 22 km. We ate a nice pancake and drank a few ice cold ice teas.

Peter drove us home after that, via the Afsluitdijk. Near Joure we were hungry again, so we stopped at a restaurant and had a chicken sate to close our photography adventure.
Home safe and sound at 19.30 hours!

Thanks Peter for this fantastic birthday present!