Wind…Water…Sun…elements that shape the world we live in. Today, we took a walk to Granite Island, off the coast of Victor Harbor. Crossing the causeway and following the path around the island, I stopped to look at (and photograph) many things (no, I didn’t do it just as a way of pacing my walk). The kids rushed ahead a bit, but I wanted to really try and notice some of the things that I often would just walk by. For instance:
> The change of the tide – being an island, the water surrounding it is constantly moving and today as we made our first crossing the tide was out and just starting to turn to come back in. The water was shallow beneath us and the long seagrass was bent over, leaning in the direction the water was running. As I watched it, it changed direction as the current took it back the other way. The further we crossed, the more changes occurred; in some of the deeper pockets the water swirled wildly, stirring up the sand below. We saw a few fish, perhaps flathead; some jellyfish; a couple of eels and something that Dave thought was a stingray and Amanda thinks was a type of shark as it had fins on the back (she is a huge fan of rays and knows a bit about them)…we will have to try and look it up later. I couldn’t pick out any Leafy Seadragons though which was a shame, we have seen them in aquariums before, though it would have been nice to see them in the wild.
> The deep water – I mentioned yesterday the remarkable colour of the water, and today I will mention it again. As we walked out onto the pier, I couldn’t get over the beautiful aquamarine colour of the deep water, it was not clear really, but there seemed to be nothing in the water at all, you couldn’t see the bottom, but there was no rubbish, no rocks, nothing at all, just the blue green water.
> The crashing waves – now this is something that I think I will always notice every time I am at the ocean, but today it was noticeable as we walked over the top of the island and came to the surf side. The calmness of the bay side was now just a memory as the waves pounded over and over again against the huge granite boulders that made up the island. The photos will not capture the pounding sound; the spray of the sea mist that rose up the cliffs to touch our faces; nor the smell of the salty water…though hopefully they will accurately reflect the effect the elements have on the rocks, carving them and grinding them into the varying shapes based on their own strength, some hollowed out into the shape of caves or bowls or breaking waves.
The elements are relentless against the earth, but also on us. A simple careless act of not enough sunscreen a couple of days ago when we went out in the sun and wind and now Amanda and I are both suffering for the discomfort of sunburn, though not extreme by any means, just enough to be uncomfortable under the neck of a different shirt or carrying a bag over your shoulder.
Something else that doesn’t seem to be taking a break this week is my mind, and thinking about work stuff. I wouldn’t usually take the week before Christmas off, but it just worked out that way this year. So I spent the later part of the afternoon catching up on a few things to ensure that people were able to move in before Christmas…job done, I feel better about it and can now sit down and relax.