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Published: June 16th 2006
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I love Telescope Beach; it has been my favourite place to be for a month. 5 minutes down Beach Road and I’m there. The locals don’t seem to think to highly of it and some say it is dirty compared to the golden sands of Gran Anse Beach in St Georges, where all the tourists go, or Bath way Beach where all the Grenadines go for BBQs and family days out.
Telescope suits me fine, it’s local, beautiful to me and most importantly it’s shallow. In the past it was known for its beauty but since the 60´s /70´s (I think) it has lost that crown. My mum, uncle and anyone old enough to remember tell me it too had golden sands that people travel for miles to see and enjoy. Apparently they blew up the barrier reef to create a bigger passage for boats to pass into the Grenville fish market.
Since they did that the sea has been reclaiming the sand and its once famed beauty. They say that the beach went out much further than it does now.
I had visited this beach over the years but on the advice of my mum hadn’t really investigated it much.
It’s only this time when my oldest brother Donald was here to show me the runnings that I finally got to know it. He used to swim from the shore by Grandma’s house to Telescope Beach when he was a boy on Sunday mornings, play with his friends and catch fish. He showed me that it was shallow right up to the whites of the waves in the distance, and also the walkways of land that you could go on that made it look like you were walking on water from the shore.
Great times were had by Donald, Eugene, P.J, D.J and I, helping the fishermen with their net and exploring fish under tree trunks on the sea bed (probably placed there by Ivan the terrible). We enjoyed cookups in the evenings with Andre and Junior the community chefs, we limed and breezed out sitting on the bent trees taking in the views, we all recharged our batteries.
I swam in the sea almost everyday, really enjoying the difference to swimming in Kensington Leisure Centre back home. Don’t get me wrong, KLC has been good to me, although my first experience wasn’t so great. It was the place my
baptism of water
I met Rizo (my cousin Carmen´s friend) and her parents at the shore one Sunday, their church was baptising some new members in the sea, I thought how lucky they were to be able to do this at Telescope Beach. school took us to learn to swim when I was 7 or 8. They didn’t teach me to swim at all but as my job allowed me a free swimming pass, I took the opportunity to teach myself the breast stroke last year, which I am honing on here.
The reason I love the shallowness of Telescope Beach is the fact that I can swim whilst feeling safe that I’m not going to be swept out or sink. I nearly drowned in Brazil in 1999 (if you know Catherine she can tell you the story. She tells it with such gusto that only she can do it justice), that´s when I realised I couldn´t swim but boy could I tred water. I’m really happy to have this new skill and to be able to enjoy it on this beautiful beach at the start of my travels.
I find that when I’m focused on the sights and sounds around me in the sea, I swim really naturally, just like going for a walk. The ´basins´ as they are called show the sea to be turquoise as they are dips in the shallow that no plants have grown. The sea bed is
just sand and although they are dips you can still stand in them without being submerged. The rest of the seabed is generally covered by various seaweeds and grasses ranging vastly in their tones of green. It is really like an underwater garden; my favourite part is when I swim over the almost fluorescent grass, it tells me exactly where I am. I love the bobbing action that I get from doing the breast stroke because of the changing view.
First I see the landscape, the hills being circled by the clouds, the sky’s many colours (blues, greys and pinks). The squatter’s houses along the shore and the fish market in the distance. Finally the shore line, then the water line and the bubbles I create with my hands as I part the water, I wish I could capture that very moment on camera. Goggles rock, as I wouldn’t be able to capture that moment in my mind.
Underwater, the blues of the sea and the greens of the garden along with that airy sound of being submerged give me that sense of peace. When I’m focused on these things I’m not frightened of the sea, I am still very
what's left of the church in St Georges
This church only has two walls that aren´t connected, I suspect it´s the doing of Ivan the Terrible vary though and in a way I hope that never goes away. If I make it to the beach late, I get the added pleasure of swimming back to the shore guided by a line of gold reflected on the water from the sun about to set to the west of the island. I really should have sought out a clear view of the sunset while I’ve been here or better still as I’m on the east coast I should have gotten up early enough to catch the sunrise, next time.
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