CAPE TOWN SHELLS AND SUMMER STORM

Cape Town Beaches

This week in Cape Town in the middle of January and summer in the southern hemisphere we were surprised by waves of between 2 and 6 meters. lashing the city’s shoreline for a week. Uprooting forests of giant kelp, casting hundreds of starfish ashore along with thousands of other mangled crustaceans that were no longer eaten because the cormorants and gulls had had enough of gobbling up.

The Antipolis, a ship sunk in 1977, ended up on the beach near The Twelve Apostles where the locals went in case they found any gold coins. (bad joke). On the internet you can find photos of the Antipolis being a new and free tourist attraction.

Anecdotally, in our Sunday walking group, there were those who worriedly said that they had never realized that there was an abandoned ship in this place that had actually just risen from the depths. Clueless that we are!

On the other hand, while the most daring surfers enjoyed themselves on the giant waves, I have to say that they were envy despite having no idea of surfing, we mortals walked up and down the promenade taking thousands of photos without being able to capture the wildness of the waves or the colors of the sunset.

 

After the storm comes the calm and this reassures us but we forget about the destruction they leave behind, despite being natural catastrophes.

 

The material can be rebuilt with more or less money, but the thousands of little lives that are lost in the face of each attack that nature receives inspires us to offer respect and help for its resilience and strength.

Love the Beach, Leave the Shells

Hardly anyone I know can resist the temptation to collect precious shells while walking along the beaches. In some countries their collection is already prohibited by law, despite this many people take them home to decorate or display them where they end up stored in drawers that end up forgotten, without giving others the opportunity to enjoy their beauty when they walk on the beaches. or simply that each shell continue its course and become a home for tiny marine animals or disintegrate to form sand, in a long, slow but very important cycle.

 

From Ates Africa we want to invite you to keep each shell in its place, because we know how important it is for the ecosystem to have them circling the sand until pulverized they become that sand that we all enjoy on beach days. The sand with which the boys build their fortresses and castles, in which your friends bury you, making you a thousand figures that make you laugh. Those moments with the smell of the sea that are kept inside you forever.

Make a difference, create your best version



× How can we assist?