Veluwe Photo day

Today was all about photography!
And what a great day it was. Together with Peter, we left Delfzijl at 06.00 am and arrived at the Veluwe, Leuvenumse bos, to be precise at 07.40 am.
We enjoyed a quick 'Snelle Jelle' in the dark and then we started our 5.5 km walk. We hoped to see some wild boars and/or Red deer but that didn't happen. 2 hours later we were back at the car.

After coffee and apple pie in Hotel De Zwarte Boer we went to the National Park De Hoge Veluwe for a second change to see some wildlife. On our way there we stopped at Kootwijkerzand for some drone-playtime. The weather was great, not too much wind, so no excuses not to fly. I made some shots from a height of approx 100 meters and this one came out the best. I like the way the sun illuminates the forest.

In the Park Restaurant we spoke to a ranger and we asked him where we could best see the wildlife. "No chance", he said, "you came at the worst time of the year, try Spring next time".
Ehhh, ok, thank you sir. (By the way, we saw the vice president of the Netherlands, mr H. de Jonge and TV-celebrity Lodewijk Hoekstra in the restaurant as well)

We were a bit disappointed, but decided to "stick to the plan" and went for wildlife spotting after all, despite the negative advice we got from the ranger.
And, as so often happened before, sticking to a plan is the best you can do.

At the first spot we went to (called "Millelamel") we saw, after waiting less than a minute, a group of 15 female red deer, drinking in pool.

One hour later, we were at another place (near Bosje van Staf) where we encountered a big group (30 animals at least) of male red deer. Not too close, but close enough to get some nice pictures and film footage. They were resting, grazing and fighting. The sound of the clashing antlers was impressive.

I'm not showing a deer photo in todays blip simply because I haven't dowloaded them from my camera yet. I'll probably squeeze one in somewhwere in the next couple of days.

After dinner in Otterlo we drove home again. I dropped Peter off at his house around 20.00pm.
As said before, a great day! Let's do this more often in 2019. (or something similar anyway)