[PHOTO] Man walking in the dunes

The Dutch coastline is fascinating - in this photograph you can see grass holding the sand, so the dunes can form a barrier against a possible rising sea.

Some parts of our coast are planned, decades ahead, planting grass and digging small ponds on the beach, knowing that wind, birds and the spreading of sand will change a bigger part of the coast naturally. Humans just gave nature a helping hand.

There's one part where you can literally see a small 'dune landscape' forming: people go to this place month after month, as you can see how the little pond experts dug moves, meter by meter, over the course of months and years, and birds create nests, and dunes grow bigger and bigger - I wish I had known beforehand, as it would make such an amazing timelapse.

Anyway, the man in the picture is literally on top of the dunes. From where he stands he can see the beach meters and meters below him, the sandy beach reaching the shoreline tens of meters away, where wind brings waves onto that same beach - one of my favourite sights and smells and feelings of all time.

I'm not as crazy as some of my fellow country(wo)men to take a dive in that sea though on the first of January - Not even because I can't handle the cold, but I just can't bring myself to get out of bed most of those New Years Days.

When I was at Lake Baikal, yes, in Siberia, Russia, I took a dive - I remember floating in the water, almost alone, and imagining how I was the tiniest dot on the planet, just floating in this huge sea of sweet water in a country that doesn't see much visitors.

One of my happy memories.

Damn, such a ramble. This is what happens if you just let me write without having an idea what I'll write about beforehand. I just saw this picture, the man, seemingly alone, and from there I got to one of my own favourite 'I felt alone in the world' moments.

Do you have one of those too?