Looking back at a successful silence weekend
As every year, Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide organised, together with partners and volunteers, several silence activities in the last weekend of October, on the occasion of the Day of Silence.
On Saturday 29 October, 14 participants took part in a meditative silence walk around Volksabdij, led by nature guide Frans van der Lem.
On Sunday 30 October, De Vroente and IVN joined forces for a silence activity for the whole family. Families with children of all ages headed to the Kalmthoutse Heide, where they took on various challenges based on poems read aloud. From searching with binoculars for hidden mini-animals that live on the heath to looking for ticklish creatures and camouflaging yourself like the animals. A successful day!
Read a report by Marianne van der Toorn (IVN Groene Zoom) below.
"Since 2011, we have celebrated the Day of Silence every last Sunday in October. Last Sunday, 30 October, was the day again. After a period of (too much) silence due to corona, the Day of Silence was able to take place again.It was gathering at de Vroente in Kalmthout. With about ten assignments, a group of almost 30 people (parents and children) set off with the guides.An appropriate poem was read for each assignment and then everyone could get to work. The first assignment was to look for bozbezbozzles, jenken, malie horses or other itchy critters. With the search card in hand, the children found a woodlouse, a spider, a ladybird and an alpine newt, among others. Wow, what a beautiful animal that is. The next task involves putting down a colour with each scent stick. The different scents, such as banana, almond and rosemary were assigned different colours. What an imagination everyone had. Next was the 'hidden world'. Choose a camouflage cloth and go hide in nature. With the explanation afterwards, every child understood why these colours are so important for the many animals in the forest and heathland. So a sunny, warm morning flew by and we learnt a lot and enjoyed a lot."