Mudflat Hiking
When you first step onto the mudflat, your face lights up with surprise. You shriek, giddy with excitement. The mud feels slimy, almost slippery. The sensation makes you shudder. But at the same time, the mud is surprisingly solid—that is, until you take a few more steps and your foot sinks; suddenly the mud is up to your knees. You begin to panic, wondering if you are stuck in quicksand, before realizing it is only mud. After some wiggling, you pull your legs out. Around you, the mudflat extends to eternity.
From the shore, the mudflat looked rather dull, but now you realize that it is alive. You peer down at the worm casts on the ground, little piles of mud squiggles, contemplating whether or not to dig below them. The screams of your friend prompt you to decide against it. Mud oozes between your toes as you tread across it, taking care to avoid stepping on scuttling crabs and purple jellyfish. You wince when you cut your foot on a broken shell and watch the blood seep from your skin and swirl into the water. Nearby, a jellyfish smaller than the palm of your hand sways gently in the low tide. You put on the water shoes you have been carrying in your hand, but they are too tight and rub the knuckles of your feet raw. Cursing yourself, you pull them off and continue barefoot.
Somewhere along the hike the water becomes deeper, soaking your pants and the bottom of your shirt. You shiver in the wind as you watch riders and horse-drawn wagons pass you by. Thirteen kilometers stretch between the tidal island of Neuwerk from where you started and mainland Germany’s coast, your destination. You have been trekking across the mudflat for around three hours now, but it feels like longer. The water catches the light as the sun begins to set, forming a shimmering painting of the soft clouds in the sky beneath your feet.
But soon, it will all disappear. The incoming tide will envelop the reed bundles that stick out of the mud, flooding the path markers. Only a few rescue towers will remain visible above the rising waters. As the sea swells, the waves will crash with renewed strength, hailing its return.