While snorkeling yesterday I found a hair elastic with a heart on it. Today I gave my watch to the reef at South Mandu Beach. The currents were much stronger today so drifting was the way to see the reef. Walk up the beach drift down and repeat the process. South Mandu looks like it was once spectacular but it has been bleached out and seems to be slowly growing back.
This evening I walked back to the beach from my campsite hoping the currents had brought my watch to shore. No such luck. Along the shore I was able see numerous rays in the shallows and one large shell slowly walking down the sandbar – perhaps 40 centimetres long with a tube spewing out rubble.
Tides are quite low right now and on the way back I noticed an exposed limestone shelf – a miniature reef itself. Small sponges and corals were in the tide pools. When I paused it sounded like something was crunching on the reef itself – perhaps urchins. Chitins were clinging to the rocks. Turbin snails were moving around and a few limpets were stuck fast. Crabs scampered to and fro.
Suddenly an audible gasp – I heard it – was that me? An eel and spotted me and rushed through the shallow channel straight for my bare feet. Startled, I jumped – then laughed. The eel had been startled by my arrival and was frantically searching for a crevice to hide in.
A new experience today. There were clouds dropping stuff on the ground this evening. The first rain since June! Fortunately I recognized the strange phenomena in time to race back to camp and put the rain fly over the tent. The two little neighbor kids came out after the rain. Puddles! then started splashing. Dad quickly intervened. “Let’s go look for kangaroos.”
