Life Saving Club on Wheels

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Yesterday

I’m having a nightmare, but it’s OK, I’ve woken up. So how come it still feels like a nightmare, only worse. I blame the pizza. I‘m still having visions of pizza, with meat and cheese, so much meat and greasy cheese, and it’s burnt. Why did I eat it I think. The rest of the day is a nausea filled blur, spent half in bed and half in, well, another room. The highlight is Issy coming back after buying half the pharmacy - anti-nausea tablets, Panadol, electrolyte….. maybe we really should have gone to the hospital like she suggested. At least she’s not sick too, although I’m not sure how she’s escaped. We had at least one piece of each other’s pizza. We did have different drinks. That must be it, although I wasn’t aware you could get food poisoning from beer. Hangovers yes, but not this….

Today

I wake up feeling a bit better. This is good. We decide to spend the afternoon relaxing on Cable Beach. The first thing we notice is that the surf life saving club high on the cliff above the beach looks deserted. There are lots of people swimming, so it’s a bit worrying that no one seems to be keeping an eye on them. We think this has probably got something to do with the tide being out. The water's edge is about a kilometre away, so you’d probably need a telescope to see any struggling swimmers from the cliff top, and they'd have long since drowned by the time you got to them. It seems that the life savers have instead set themselves up in a portable clubhouse on the sand in the far distance down by the water. The tide looks to be going out even further as we watch on. It goes out so quickly that they need to move the clubhouse every few minutes so that they stay close enough to the waves. They also need to keep shifting the flags that they want people to swim between. Life saving up here in the land of massive tides is clearly a whole different ball game.

We rent an umbrella and two sun lounges and set up shop about a hundred metres seaward from the cliff, but were still a long hike from the surf. The water's not too cold. Issy tells me not to go too far out. I saw some pictures on the Internet yesterday of crocodiles swimming through the waves off here. The article that went with them said that crocs didn't usually take up residence here; any that have been seen here were just cruising past. If this was supposed to be reassuring is wasn't particularly effective. I'm not sure whether to be worried or comforted by the planes and helicopters circling overhead keeping an eye out for crocs and presumably also for sharks. Well I hope that's what they're doing. If they're just doing joy flights I think now might be a good time to head back to our umbrella.

Umbrella man has got his operation down to a fine art. He’s got an electric drill with a massively long bit which he uses to make deep holes in the sand to put the umbrellas in. We need to keep moving our sunlounges to stay in the shade. Issy says that it’s about time someone invented umbrellas that tilt as the sun moves. She says they could be solar powered, and any leftover power could then be used to charge our phones and iPads. I think she might be onto something here.

We head further up the beach to watch the nightly sunset camel parade. We’ve booked a camel ride in a couple of days time, and have been told to look for the camels dressed in blue. There are only two sets of camels here tonight - one set dressed in red and the other in yellow. I hope Issy's theory that they've given the blue camels a night off is right, because the only other explanation I can come up with for their absence is that we‘ve been scammed.

The tide goes out so far and fast here that water keeps flowing seaward out of the sand long after the tide has retreated. This makes for spectacular patterns, and even more so if there are any rocks in the vicinity. ...and the resident crabs seem to have to diligently re-dig their holes after every tide cycle, which leaves lots of very cute looking groups of tiny balls on the beach. The entire area is littered with them at low tide. The whole scene is very photogenic.

Every time we’ve come here at sunset a large yacht has sailed directly between the setting sun and the Cable Beach Club at almost exactly the same time as the sun goes down. We have a theory that it’s paid to do this, although we’re not quite sure who’s paying. It seems to be going a bit faster than usual tonight and it’s past the Beach Club before the sun disappears. There goes that theory. Oh wait. Maybe not. We watch on as it does a u-turn and comes back again and then repeats the exercise, this time at exactly the right moment. It must be getting good money….

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Photos

Cable Beach sunset
This yacht sails in front of the sun at the exact time it sets every night.....

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Beautiful
Everyone loves a sunset.

[Finnoytravel]

Post like
Great Post ! I have read your other posts which are really informative. Thanks