Walking club

The walking club is a ProParte sub-group.

The programme consists of walks in the Leiden area and occasionally a little further afield. We alternately visit polders, dunes, beaches and country estates, focusing on nature and the history of the area.

2023 Annual report

In the year 2024 we enjoyed beautiful and varied walks again: through the dunes, along the beach, the inner dune edge estates and the peat meadow areas around Leiden.

January started with a winter walk through the dunes.

In February we walked through the Backershage and de Paauw estates and looked for the first harbingers of spring, young blades of green that pierced up through the old dry leaves, and we discovered traces of centuries-old garden construction. During coffee, Titia van der Eb was surprised with a very beautiful photo book, compiled by Thea Daha, containing the group photos of the walking club that Annelies Poelmann makes every month and a witty text by Roel Willemze. It marked more than five years of ProParte walking.

In March, just before the closure due to the breeding season, we walked through the Boterhuispolder, a polder with unique block allotment; Part of it was about decking due to the newly constructed wet nature.

In April, Roel and Ans organised a very special tour of the Duck Decoy of Warmond, led by Van Dijk. Bart van Konijnenburg. He is the initiator and one of the volunteers who has completely refurbished this duck decoy, dating from the first half of the seventeenth century. Ducks are now ringed.

May brought us to the nightingale's song in the dunes south of Katwijk and to the beach.

In June we visited a forgotten piece of nature with a very special vegetation in Wassenaar.

In July, we walked through the tranquil Prielen forest in steadily rustling rain, and we met a mole above the ground.

In August, it was a very hot day, we cooled off under the foliage of the tall trees in the Horsten.

In September we went for a brisk stroll in the Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen.

For October, Annelies and Rob Poelmann had set out a walk, around the Meijendel farm, through a varied terrain and with beautiful views.

November: it was already a bit late in the season for the fallow deer rut, but after a good search and a long walk we were rewarded with a few beautiful bucks with large antlers. 

In December, on a very cold morning, we focused our attention on the Hortus' connection with our University during a tour of the Hortus Botanicus, after which we were surprised with a lunch in the Academy Building, co-organised by Martine Jager, and where Lex van der Eb was presented with the Academy Medal.

It is not only the physical challenge and the enjoyment of nature and culture that makes this club flourish, it is also the mutual friendships that arise during the walk, over coffee and apple pie or lunch afterwards. This is evident from the fact that members, who unfortunately no longer participate for physical reasons, still like to attend