loosdrechtse plassen (13. 683)

Via our fellow internet peripatetic, Messy Nessy who’se got a flashy new revamped site, we discover the Dutch community where residents reside on narrow islands on a vast shallow lake in a water sports park and nature reserve between Amsterdam and Utrecht between the canals of Hilversums and Tienhovens. 

Originally the area was a peat bog considered too soggy for agricultural purposes or to excavate for fuel purposes and dredging and removal of dry peat (vervening or turfwinning), with natural weathering and erosion taking its course after usable material was exhausted creating plassen—puddles between in the furrows between, expanding to their present size. 

It reminds us of Leipziger Neuseenland (previously here, here and here), created out of industrialisation and since returned to a more natural state and the Himmelsteiche, a product of centuries of geo-engineering of the more traditional sort. More images and curiosities at the links above.