Our last hurrah before catching the ferry back to the European mainland was visiting a nature preserve directly east of our hotel in Texel. Once we were fortified by breakfast, we quickly checked out and not much later face to face with another beautifully sunny morning with Mother Nature, the Slufter dunes, simply inspiring in scope and grand in its potential to do so. The absence of any other soul in sight was a luxury that’s priceless, it was hard not to appreciate each second and every step we took to get closer to the North Sea in the horizon.

The more I age seems directly related to, if not a reason for, how much more I appreciate solitude with nature, and diminishing hearing aside I’ve noticed how strong the call of the wild can be. For someone who early on preferred to stay away from most rural settings, sadly it’s only in recent years that I’ve been otherwise inclined.
Thankfully, it’s never too late to heed the call.