More than 4,000 participants have registered for the 15th edition of the Alkmaar Walking 4 Days Marches. In the coming week, walkers can listen to the stories of the writer Nikki Vrees (36) from Alkmaar, who made a four-day podcast especially for the event. “We have become detached from nature. I take listeners on a journey to find that primal connection again.”
Nikki from Alkmaar feels deeply connected to nature. Not only did she learn an important life lesson from her vegetable garden, but the mole that regularly visits her garden also gives her creative ideas, she says. “I had lots of cuttings on the windowsill for my vegetable garden. Sowing and sprouting worked, but the growth kept stagnating. When I realized that this actually referred to me, not anymore.”
Last push
According to Nikki, the plants that just didn’t want to grow symbolized her own process. “I always had ideas, but never managed to grow them into the big plan. My own stagnation. Then I realized that I can dare to grow.”
The mole in her garden gave her the last push to fulfill a long wish: to write a children’s book. A story about Hendrik Mol, who is looking for a house, but is always chased away by people, cats and stones.
‘Going with the masses’
Yet she couldn’t find that connection with nature for years. “Life didn’t make sense for me for a long time,” she says. “I always went along with the crowd. I didn’t dare to go left where others went right. It made me sick because I didn’t listen to myself.”
“With my stories I feel like a bridge between man and nature”
Until she started taking short walks in nature. “Then I started thinking, perceiving and feeling differently. I realized that without that connection with nature there is a kind of emptiness, which means you are constantly looking for something.”
Everything is alive
During the various routes, walkers pass forests, dunes, polders, water and pass special places and historic buildings. Listeners can listen to a story from Nikki every day, which merges with the environment and nature of that route.
She hopes that they too will feel that connection again. “With my stories I feel like a bridge between man and nature. So that you not only walk through woods and dunes, but are also a participant and perceive nature in a different way. Everything is alive – and we are inextricably linked to it.”
If you feel inspired or want to contribute after listening, you can transfer donation. “The podcasts were created without the organization’s budget, so people can contribute to the creation of my new book without obligation.”
Nikki’s podcasts are to listen to daily via the Wandel4daagse-App or the website of Le Champion.
The Wandel4daagse Alkmaar starts on Wednesday 14 June in the vicinity of Bergen, along dunes, forests and polders. On Thursday there will be a walk from the center of Alkmaar along Sint Pancras, Oudorp, Oterleek, Heerhugowaard and Ursem, among others. Friday is called the Pilgrim’s Route: all distances pass various churches and special historical locations in Heiloo, Limmen and Egmond that day. On Saturday, the water is central: that day goes along the Alkmaar canals, the Noordhollands Kanaal, Geestmerambacht and the Thousand Islands Empire.