Travel Plan: The Pellworm- Suderoog Islands, Germany

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 (Pellworm Island; image source: de.wikipedia.org)


Hello Traveller,

You are someone eager to walk unbeaten tracks. You wonder how people live in remote corners of the world where time seems to stand still, and life flows forever without much change. This is why you must visit Pellworm and Suderoog in Germany. These places might teach you an entirely new philosophy of life if you are the listening type.   

Suderoog Island can be described in two phrases- one, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the North Frisian Wadden Sea, and two, called by many a floating dream.


This island is on the mudflats of Germany. To benefit those uninitiated in geography and its weird diversity, I must explain that a mudflat is a tidal flat, a slob, as the Irish call it. It amounts to a coastal wetland formed by silt deposits in an intertidal area. 


They are similar to bays, estuaries, lagoons, and bayous. The mudflats are alternatively submerged and exposed. Even when submerged, the water will be shallow, often ankle-deep or knee-deep, and you can walk around there. If the mudflats are vast, they provide a unique experience as you walk there a few kilometres. Pellworm and Suderoog islands in Germany present this unique opportunity. 


The Ecosystem of Mudflats and Why It is Important to Conserve Them


More than 10,000 plant and animal species live on the mudflats. These tidal flats are important to migratory birds as pit stops where they feed and rest. Many species of fish, molluscs, and crabs are endemic to mudflats. This is why, for example, the UK mudflats are classified as a Biodiversity Action Plan priority habitat. 


The mudflat, where the Pellworm-Suderoog islands are located, is the largest in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 


The mudflats worldwide are threatened by sea pollution, river pollution, and climate-change-induced sea level rise. Human activity adds to the peril of these unique geological planes. Between the 1950s and 2000, half of the world’s mudflats were destroyed. Visiting them as eco-tourists helps you understand their beauty and significance.


In countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, mudflat hiking is an equally thrilling substitute for trekking into a forest or to a mountain. The Wadden Sea mudflats are the largest mudflat ecosystem in the world and a favourite place for tourists. 


Ten islands are geographically suited for mudflat hiking in the North Frisian Wadden Sea, and Suderoog and Pellworm are the best. 


Island Suderoog


The island, Suderoog, is part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. The island has only one house and four permanent residents- a family consisting of a husband, wife, and two children- Nele, Holger, Fenja, and Ilvy. 


The island is heart-shaped. The area of land is 60 Ha, and an additional 40 Ha is kept as pasture for the sheep. Earlier, it was the chosen location for annual international summer camps for the youth. The area is approximately 60 Ha. The husband and wife who live on the island are employees of the national park but own private property there, too. 


Idyllic meadows, a farm with about a hundred sheep, traditional windmills, a 13th-century church and a lighthouse are the attractions of this island. There is a lot of quality in this minimal setting. The picture postcard house of the family living there is a symbol that reminds one that life could be simple and content with a minimum quantity of material possessions. 


Overnight guests are not allowed on the island. You can walk through the mudflats for 6-7 kilometres, reach the island, spend the day there and return to the mainland. 


Visitors are allowed only between May and October. They have to reach the island from Pellworm either by boat when the tide is high or by walking with a guide over the mudflats. 


Suderoog is also a wedding destination. The German word for an island without a protective dike is Hallig. A Hallig wedding is popular, and the official website of the host family in Sudaroog informs that the island is open to a Hallig wedding. 


The address given on the website is,

Nele Wree & Holger Spreer-Wree

Hallig Süderoog

25849 Pellworm

04844/244

Neleundholger@halligsuederoog.de


Island Pellworm


To reach Suderoog, the best approach is to visit Pellworm Island and meet the mailman who stays there. He will take you along to Suderoog when he takes mail there. He can go to Suderoog only when the tides are low, and the mudflats are walkable. 


Pellworm has an area of 37 square kilometres. The Pellworm lighthouse also hosts weddings, and the added speciality of such a wedding is the traditional captain’s ceremony held to conclude the wedding proceedings. A picture of this lighthouse was imprinted on a stamp of the German postal service as part of its lighthouse stamp series. The view from the 37-metre-high lighthouse is magnificent. 


Bicycles and motorbikes can be hired to circumnavigate the Island by riding 28 kilometres along the coastal line. You can get a cycling map at the Pellworm Spa and Tourism Service.  


The island harbour is also worth a visit. It has shrimp cutters moored there, painted in beautiful multicolour. There is also a bird bunk, which used to be for catching ducks and was functional during the first half of the 20th century. The 11th-century St. Salvator church is a must-visit. 


Unlike Suderoog, there are many houses on this island. Just like Suderoog, this island also has green pastures and meadows. You can see grazing sheep against the pleasant deep blue sky, enjoying the slow breeze from the sea.    


Rungholt Museum is another worthwhile visit for tourists, and it has a fascinating history.


The Story of Rungholt Island 


The time was AD 1362. The familiar Wadden Sea rose furiously with an unknown vengeance against the land. The storm broke the dykes of Rungholt Island, which was very close to Pellworm. This incident came to be known as ‘the great drowning of people’, the Grote Mandrenke. There were 42 perishes on the island. The island's entire population disappeared in the storm and was never heard of again. While Rungholt Island was wiped off the face of Earth, many neighbouring islands also lost many lives. The estimates reveal that about 10,000 people died in that storm. 


A few ruins of Rungholt can still be spotted on the sand beds near Pellworm Island in low tide. Rungholt was a commercial hub for trade between England, Germany, and Scandinavia.   

 

The Mudflat Mailman of Pellworm


Knud Knudsen is the mud flat mailman who brings the mail to Suderoog Island. He lives on the island of Pellworm. The island dwellers can expect mail when the sea recedes from the mudflats. For the postman, it is a journey of 6.5 kilometres over the mud flats. He also regularly takes tourists on a walk to Suderoog over the mudflats. He will also pre-order coffee for you when you reach the island. 


As you walk with him in the surreal expanse of the yellow-grey sand and sediment, you might find your mind’s horizons expanded and filled with wonder at the beauty Earth offers us to behold.  


The mudflats protect the seashore communities from high tides and climate change-related rising sea levels. Yet these islands are threatened by global warming. The residents have apprehensions. How much longer can they live on the Halligen (mudflat islands)? Many migratory birds depend on these islands and its surrounding mudflats for food. 


How to Reach Pellworm and Suderoog


To travel to Pellworm, you have to reach Nordstrand in Germany. Nordstrand is a peninsula on the North Sea coast of Germany. You can take a ferry from Strucklahnungshörn harbour, Nordstrand, to Pellworm. The ferry charge per adult is around 15,00 €. There are hotels and restaurants in Pellworm where you can stay and dine. 


When your feet are wet and soothed by the soft silky sediments of these mudflats and when you see this surreal landscape expanding to the horizon and then as you walk it, a green patch of land with its simple life routines appearing before your eyes, you might realise why this geography has to survive the onslaughts of our civilisation. Then you can go back and talk to your friends about this “floating dream”, pass on the beacon of conservation and spread the pure amazement you felt at Mother Earth standing on these gorgeous frills of the sea. 

For more travel plans to remote and fascinating destinations, visit-

https://www.brokenbangles.com/2024/09/travel-plan-trip-to-understand-bermuda.html

https://www.brokenbangles.com/2024/10/magnificent-orthodox-churches-russia.html

https://www.brokenbangles.com/2024/09/travel-plan-vanavara-siberia.html

https://www.brokenbangles.com/2024/10/travel-plan-visit-marvels-of-amazon-rainforest-peru.html 

https://www.brokenbangles.com/2024/11/travel-plan-visit-himalayas-and.html


References


Hallig Suderoog, halligsuderoog.de

Life in the Medieval Town of Rungholt in 1362, April 11, 2022, www.medieval.eu 


Report by Axel Rowohlt, Ruth Krause (Producer), September 22, 2024, Reporter, DW News. 

halligsuderoog.de


Pellworm: A North Sea Haven in the Middle of the Mudflats, www.germany.travel


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