There are 15 resorts dotted along the dunes that line the entire coast, and as Belgium has been out of confinement since 8 June, everything has pretty much reopened. Restaurants have also reopened, and the only reason to book is to ensure a table, capacity having been reduced to ensure social distancing. During an hour-long ramble I meet just one man, walking his dog. The reserve is free to enter, there are no boundaries or rangers, and several paths lined with thick heathland gorse and a kaleidoscope of sea lavender, wild thyme, evening primrose and pansy of the dunes, criss-cross the rolling dunes.
Walking back into town I pass the Sportstrand, a kilometre-wide beach where people are racing up and down on high-speed sand yachts β basically go-carts with sails β a sport invented here in De Panne. In town the weekly Saturday market is in full swing. Recent laws made face coverings compulsory in shops and museums. I buy provisions for a lunchtime picnic β local cheeses and home-cured ham and salami β and walk over to the beach.
With brightly striped windbreakers and retro bathing huts, it resembles a Victorian seaside postcard, with rented sunbeds and deckchairs laid out to ensure each group has their own bubble. Families are having all the usual fun: building sand castles, playing beach tennis, paddling, swimming, and wind- and kite-surfing.
I notice that we are also being monitored from above, with helicopters checking crowd levels. I expect a quiet summer. The next day I trundle along to and Ostend, the midpoint of the Belgian coast and its largest city. I disembark to explore for a couple of hours but the boardwalk and beach are packed, so I head into town. Ostend has become something of an avant-garde cultural hub in recent years, and while everyone is at the beach, the museums advance booking necessary are forgotten by visitors, including both the contemporary Mu.
I then put on my mask obligatory on public transport and pick up my faithful tram again, direction Bredene-aan-Zee. Bredene and neighbouring De Haan stand out from other Belgian resorts as neither were afflicted by the s building boom of concrete holiday apartments. The modern town lies inland on the other side of the main road, where some 28 campsites offer self-catering chalets, caravans and tents.
