With the onset of cooler weather, respite from the punishing southeasters and soft light of early autumn, I took a most unusual step and walked along Long Beach. The heavy seas of the weekend had flattened to an almost pond-like surface - the board-snapping giants of Sunset were nowhere to be seen.
It must be some years since I walked there - I'm not a beach person, for some reason, maybe I don't like hot sun, sticky sand or howling winds, but today was a delight as I paddled in the shallows, occasionally getting my jeans legs wet by a sudden unexpected surge that splashed up my legs at such a rate that only a sprint up the beach would have avoided it. The water wasn't all that cold, although admittedly the feet are a little more forgiving than the soft flesh of an exposed belly, and a woman in a bikini was spotted at the beginning of our walk, heading for the shoreline. I didn't look back to see if she actually went in.
In all the years I have lived here, I recall only going into the sea twice and never beyond knee level. It's a discomfort level I have no need to experience, not being directly related to any mermaid that I know of. On the hottest of days, I remember the swims I had at Fish Hoek beach way back in the 60s and 70s and yearn slightly for those times, but a dip of the toe on this side of the Peninsula just doesn't bring back that same experience! And of course Jaws didn't help - I have had a very healthy respect for the sea since I saw that mechanical shark way back when!
We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is time I went out into it and walked the wet sand and scorched mountains and breathed the unpolluted air fed in from the icy South Atlantic. It is free and the very best way to restore one's soul and equilibrium.
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