There has been some intensity in our lives lately. Work intensity. School intensity. Autism intensity. Volunteer job intensity. Hurt people hurting people intensity.
To celebrate the end of school, we hoped to take the kids to the beach. Some friends who are leaving for the summer suggested an overnight with our families, and it turned into this trip. Forty-eight hours at a remote beach, in the bush. The house we stayed in is kind of like camping, with beautiful simplicity. No electricity (but generator 3 hours a day), gravity-fed water, the house has giant folding doors/grates that open up to the ocean.
This is wild ocean. All of history, from the beginning of earth, is in here. That's part of what I love about it. It puts me in perspective. My life could come and go a million times in the life of this ocean.
And it's mine to explore, to see what it will show me this weekend.
Hiking along am outer rock wall as the tide comes in is breathtaking.
Massive coral rock tables edge in from the north and form tide pools at low tide, and the incoming tide crashes magnificently against them.
I was happy to get this shot of a grey heron fishing as I came back from peeking into dozens of tidal pools.
It was a full moon weekend, and it felt like that. Just...different. My autism mamas know what I'm talking about. Like you've regressed two years overnight.
Treasures of the tide pools included lots of coral reef nurseries like this one. All kinds of wrasses, other fishes large and small...
...brittlestar. These are like starfish but they wave their thinner arms around more freely.
The dreaded sea urchin. They are a sign of imbalance in the reef. I have stepped on one of these barefoot before, but no more...they are no match for my water boots. (It is my goal, however, to kill nothing, not even plants, on my little excursions. Jainists, Buddhists and my newly-turned-pacifist son Henry, who recently began protesting the killing of ants and mosquitoes, are quite relieved at this.)
Acres and acres of pools like these, many connected under the rock, many others perfect aquariums full of surprises.
My water boots (protective booties with tough, treaded soles) paid for themselves this weekend on three good hikes over this razor-sharp rock, stalking herons and kingfishers. It was on one of these hikes that I spotted a snake-eel over a meter long.
During the calm of low tide, you can hear the clicking of a thousand tiny legs as dozens of crab varieties make their way to food, and often become food themselves.
Henry's always ready to go to the beach. He's my beachcombing buddy and is great at finding sea treasure.
Ruby and Len resting a moment before heading back out.
The lot of us walking at an exceptionally low tide Sunday morning. They have just walked across the channel from the camera to the rocks, and that channel will become a dangerously deep trench as the tide comes later.
This is a local fishing hut, where fishermen live and store materials while they're working.
We had some intensity Saturday when a friends' son playing in the surf was suddenly pulled way out by a strong current. Len and his friend Simon went after him with an inflatable surfboard, being pulled in different directions as the wind picked up and the tide came in.
After swimming full-on for several minutes, they were able to get the boy and each other holding on to the board. But they were not able to get in - they were exhausted, fighting wind and current and waves crashing over them every few seconds, and doing their best to hold on as they swam and got nowhere. Simon's wife ran for help and some local workers were able to bring everyone in safely. Very thankful for my husband today.
This ornate spiny lobster was laying neatly inside a tall tide pool as I hiked around afterwards. It's only the shell of the head and upper body - something (I'm guessing a heron or fish eagle) had just picked it clean underneath.
God must have been feeling creative when he designed ornate spiny lobsters.
Near where I found the turtle bones pictured below:
One especially cool find in the rocky pools was this sea turtle skeleton. There were several other pieces too large to carry back, but you get the idea. The irregular pieces are the breastplate bones, the others are upper shell plates/bones. Each of these is at least a foot long. I love finding stuff like this and sharing with the kids.
Can you imagine how huge this thing was? each bone was about two pounds, and I estimate this is about 20 percent of the total skeleton.
As the tide moves in and out, dozens of waterfalls like this one form in the rocks. The sound and sights are surreal, and this weekend was as well. Perspective-giving. Sometimes we need to get away from the world and just listen to God, while immersed in his art.
