A beach clean-up

The plastic! Oh, the plastic! I have never seen so much plastic in various stages of disintegration (not decomposition) on this beach. Our hike to the Kakapo wreck on Long Beach saw us clutching plastic bags (of course) to put plastic in wherever we could find it. In the old days, a walk on the beach meant picking up pretty shells and odd bits of interesting driftwood, but now all we see is the detritus of human consumption of junk food. Sweet wrappers, sucker sticks, chip packets, straws, wrappers from individually wrapped peppermints, Styrofoam containers shattered into tiny pieces to float the ocean currents at will - it was impossible to pick up every tiny piece, but the most important bits are those that can restrict an animal or bird i.e. plastic rings, and there were plenty of those. None of us should ever discard a plastic ring without cutting it first.
The clean-up was initiated by one of our group who suggested that we should incorporate it in the walk, and she eventually revealed that she had an ulterior motive - not that any of us needed persuading and the clean-up was carried out with great enthusiasm - and that was to honour the memory of one of her colleagues who tragically was on the Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed earlier this year with no survivors. Here is her story:

"A little about Sarah Auffret:

Her official title was Environmental Agent for AECO ( Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators)   She was leading efforts to drastically cut back on single-use plastics on the Arctic expedition cruise vessels. (There are many)  as well as leading the Clean Seas effort in the Arctic.  She did similar work in Japan.   Sarah worked our ship G Expedition as Expedition Leader, lecturer and Zodiac driver.  She was also Base Leader a few years ago, at Port Lockroy, the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust Antarctic Station.   She was just a wonderful young woman, quietly spoken with the best smile.  She was on board the Ethiopian Airline Boeing that crashed on 10 March 2019.  No one survived."
We can only hope that our effort today would have met with her approval.
The walk itself was a delight - blustery wind coming in from the northwest, with low cloud and mist appearing and vanishing again to allow the sun to bathe us in spring warmth before coming back to remind us that winter is not yet done. The sea was crystal clear and varying  shades of turquoise, with African Black Oystercatchers chasing each other up and down the shoreline, gulls and swift terns and plenty of cormorants keeping an eye out for a meal. The drama created by the clouds enveloping Chapman's Peak and the surrounds of Hout Bay always make for spectacular scenery and we took plenty of photos for you to enjoy!