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Land Rover Magazine Issue 39

  • Text
  • Clearsight
  • Climbing
  • Defender
  • Bison
Icelandic surfing, enabled by the new Land Rover Defender | Artisanal globe-making in London with Bellerby & Co | Gallery of stunning drone photography | Author Helen Russell explores the meaning of happiness | Exclusive short story by Jean Macneil

32 To be honest, it’s

32 To be honest, it’s not the most obvious place to see the largest, and perhaps shyest, land mammal in Europe. From just beyond the oak trees, I can hear the ceaseless fizz of the Zandvoort racetrack. Directly left of the F1 circuit, the pubs, herring shacks, Ferris wheels and yellow-painted tower blocks of Bloemendaal beach resort are clearly visible. Meanwhile, high above us, the multiple chalk-white vapour trails show that we are just 20 minutes’ drive from Schiphol Airport. Yep, 20. If you were 20 minutes out of Heathrow Airport in London you’d still be in Heathrow. But this is the Netherlands, one of the most densely populated countries on Earth. This is a land where they have to pack it all in and, boy, do they do that in the compact Zuid-Kennemerland national park. The essence of this park – the emotional core of the place – is a sequence of rugged, wind-scoured, greygold sand dunes, created over countless centuries by complex North Sea tides. The sands are secured by shrubs, spindle trees, and the odd stand of imported pine. Lavish rain, ample seaside sun and a mild coastal

Two watchful denizens of the Kraansvlak bison herd. Left: biologist Esther Rodriguez; Zuid-Kennemerland national park clime have aided the dusty soil: the reason that, for many decades, Zuid-Kennemerland was given over to small-scale farming, private game reserves and water management. Buried metres under the wheels of our Land Rover Discovery (which is eating up the dunes with an impressive appetite) is a treasure trove. Half of North Holland’s drinking water is filtered through the northern dunes and their underlying mini-aquifers. So what is the animal lurking – somewhere – out there? In two words: European bison, a species that has been just-about-dodging extinction for centuries. These particular bison have been placed in Kennemerland as part of a larger European rewilding movement that aims to restore classic wilderness and reintroduce old species across the continent, from ibis in Austria and wolves in Castile, to remaking the Caledonian forests of Scotland. This is, in turn, part of a global movement to return areas of land to their natural balance before humans began terraforming through hunting and clearing. This particular rewilding project is, we have to remind ourselves, taking place just three short miles from the centre of the Dutch city of Haarlem. Our guide in Kennemerland is Esther Rodriguez, a young Spanish biologist who is heavily pregnant but still buzzing with energy and enthusiasm. She suggests we try another route as we keenly scan the drizzly horizon for The Big Beast. While we search – tensely inching our way through the dunes – Esther explains the recent history. “In the 1990s, the whole area was legally conserved as a national park, but nitrogen deposition, forestation and declines in the numbers of rabbits due to epidemic diseases meant the dunes started to become encroached by grasses and shrubs, which reduced their dynamic nature.” She turns, and gestures; we all squint eagerly out of the car, through the pines. But no. It’s another fallow deer, pronking through the marram grass. Esther concludes her story. “To manage the shrubs, large grazers like the Scottish Highland cattle, Konik horses and Shetland ponies were introduced to Zuid- Kennemerland,” she says. “And we also looked east. To the European bison… One of which, by the way, is standing right over there.” You what? Joe the photographer abruptly swings his zoom lens round in the car, nearly concussing me. 33

 

Land Rover Magazine

 

Land Rover Magazine showcases stories from around the world that celebrate inner strength and the drive to go Above and Beyond.

In this issue, New Defender is put through its paces by two inspirational young adventurers as they prepare for an expedition to the South Pole. We also celebrate 50 years of Range Rover by taking a journey of discovery to Dubai. As well as looking back, we look to future as a group of visionaries explain the technologies that could change the future for all of us.

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