Basin Head beach - jumping in a rip current

    Instead of faffing about with “town time” we just went to the beach for a whole day. 

We went to Basin Head Beach which is famous for its “singing sands”. These sands are supposed to make noise when you walk on them. We didn’t hear anything… I think they were singing sotto voice as they could not be heard over the usual beach screamers.

   The noisiest part of the beach was a channel that people were jumping in. It had a little bridge over it. This bridge was a prime area for the kids to jump off, it was hard to get through - they were so focused on what they were doing, they were more liable to yell in your face than move out of the way. One kid on the bridge yelled “Here I go” and then put his leg on the rung, and then quieter - “No,  I can’t do it”, then changed his mind - “Here I go”. Who knows how long he was there.

    Jan and I chose to get in the water downstream and were quickly swept up in the current. It was a fun being a bobbing cork - you could feel the might of the water around you carrying you along. There was a life guard on duty watching the current. It was probably one of the more dangerous activities I've ever seen at a beach. I think you could tell that the kids barely believed they were allowed to jump in, they were just so keyed up.

    When we got under the bridge there were three kids in life jackets about to jump off. They had the tunnel vision stare, all caught up in fear and giddiness. I yelled “No!” just as they jumped right above me, thankfully they didn’t hit me but we got swept together in a tight little pontoon. I struggled to get away but it wasn’t possible. You really shouldn’t bother fighting a rip current! We were stuck floating the rest of the way out to sea. Eventually we dispersed from each other and staggered back to shore.

Jan and Josh in the current

   The tide went out quickly and a sandbar was exposed. There was a big gull on one, apparently he owned it, he strolled from one end to the other. Elsa and I built a sandcastle and he watched us. Then Matthew and Charlie played frisbee for an hour, he was there the whole time watching.

   Elsa dug a hole. It had two black lines in it. Why were there two layers of sand that were black? I’m not sure, perhaps a fire was built there. She says her motto is “Dig or die”.  

    I remember the motto of our Mexico trip was "Everything can't be perfect". The motto this time is "Like it or lump it", we are less patient this trip. Elsa will answer with a yell "Lump it!" and then start punching my arm.

   Some ominous clouds appeared so we packed up. As we were driving away it cleared again! The weather here is very changeable.

If this cloud appeared, wouldn't you leave the beach?

Birds ‘n Mammals

• one Gull on a sandbar, a genial host
• A warbler, possibly Marigold, that hit a window and was being held by a man as it recovered. He said it was a “yellow finch” which isn’t even a proper species!