Strand De Beetse
Or colloquially The'Beetser koelen' are three large ponds, created by sand extraction since 1938. The Beetser Koele is the largest lake in Westerwolde and the largest in the wider area, covering 61 hectares.
Take a closer look
Sand extraction began in 1938. It is river sand deposited here about 800,000 years ago by precursors of the Rhine. It is the oldest visible soil material in Westerwolde.
Between the sand grains is glauconite, which gives De Beetserkoele its blue-green haze. The extracted sand is rinsed clean and sorted by grain size. The water used for this purpose flows back into the lake with the glauconite. The 30-metre-deep lake is popular with day trippers.