Wednesday
Dear Elsie
Today it was too windy to swim, so I walked. I had a really good walk too. I walked up Contour to Mountain and then up to the shark spotters hut. Only, it was not the Shark Spotters I wanted to speak to, it was the Trek fishermen. When I’m swimming to the barrel, I often look up to see if the Trek fishermen spotters are there. They have a white bakkie and are clearly visible from the water.
They are there early in the morning before the official shark spotter arrives. I can never take a photo of them from below because I’m always in the sea and I can’t see them from the cat walk. Walking up the mountain today, I got to have a very interesting conversation with these very knowledgeable experts on fish. They said they can clearly see shoals and sharks and would alert the trek fishermen on the beach. In fact, they once did. I was swimming towards the lighthouse when I saw a guy running down the beach. I then noticed him waving frantically. I stopped swimming and he gesticulated for me to get out the water. A bronze whaler had been spotted so they got all the swimmers out the water. This happened early in the morning before the shark spotters came on duty. Really helpful team are the Trek Fisherman. One of them gave me his glasses and told me to look at the sea. They were polaroid and got rid of all the glare. They were quite happy for me to take their photo.
Then we spoke about the shark bite incident off Strandfontein and they said it was most likely to be a ragged tooth shark, if a shark at all. That would have done some damage but they are generally not aggressive. The man may have swum through a shoal of fish that the shark had its eye on and snapped at the wrong swimmer. The Trekkies said they had not seen any Great White sharks for more than 5 years. So, my confidence is buoyed that when I’m swimming, and the bakkie is there, I will have my own set of personal shark spotters. I appreciate them.
View from Mountain Rd.
I walked 6km, got home just before 8.30am. A good day’s work followed.
Now we are settling in for the evening. Mike & I have been watching some of our favourite romcoms. The other day it was Serena. Last night it was You’ve Got Mail.
Tomorrow Julian arrives for my birthday weekend and it will be great for him to be here for my birthday as well. We’ve got some celebrating to do!
Psalm 102:18
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord.
That’s us!
It’s not about now – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Gran xx 🙂