Life’s an ocean with too much commotion

On a cold winter day in december, me and Jeroen Van Aken decided to drive to Doel to take some pictures of a city that is going to be completely demolished. This to make room for a new dock for Flanders Port.

When we arrived, we surprisingly noticed that there are still people living in Doel. However, most of the houses are empty and ruined. Fragments of glass, trash and broken walls are filling the picture of Doel. The few people that still live there, live near to each other.

Taking pictures in Doel only gets interesting if you can go into left houses. However, most houses are so loaded with trash that it’s often difficult to enter them. When you finally manage to go in them, you often hear noises or people moving, because there are crackers living in these houses. We managed however to enter the former restaurant of Saeftinghe,  which has been left in it’s original abandoned state.

I think Doel was once a very cosy town with a tight community, where neighbours still knew each other. The only thing that reminds us of the livingness of the city, is the “De Lijn” bus that has some halts in this city and still drives through it.

I also noticed that there is a certain smell hovering in the city. I don’t know if it’s caused by the Schelde that passes the town or from the nuclear powerplant.

I’m looking forward to see the increased turnover for Flanders port now that a new dock is ready to be build, when all you hear is stories about too high energy costs for boat transport.

Ah well, at least it was a well-spent day and I managed to take some pictures…