Ruins of wrack…

Many of the postings in this blog are originally published as my weekly column in the South Coast Herald, a weekly paper for southern KwaZulu-Natal. The beach in question is in the pic.

LAST weekend the tide dumped a great swathe of seaweed along the beach near my house; a great ruddy brown mass of the stuff. It was all atangle with different varieties of sea vegetation, which had a rich lobsterish smell, reminding of one of the advantages of living close to the sea; and there are many.

 

I am not sure why it should be called seaweed; it is, after all, a medley of sea vegetables. Much of it is edible, although seemingly not appealingly edible enough to arouse the interest of the locals.

 

Ruins of wrack wound around strands of half a dozen other types, and beautiful bright green golf ball like things, all related and all algae, according to my reading of the two books I have on seaweed. I chew a few of my favourites, upright codium (codium extricatum) and its other fleshy relatives.

 

There is surprisingly little rubbish, although the occasional reminder of the presence of South Coast fishermen is to be seen in the odd ball of tackle - hook, line and sinker.

 

Lately I have enjoyed the fruits of the council’s labours. The storm damage of a couple of years ago, which wrought havoc on our shores, has now been repaired. Not only repaired but repaired with some thought. The wrecked staircase down to the beach a short distance south of the Impejati estuary has been beautifully rebuilt.

 

What is more the wooden and concrete detritus that scarred this useful amenity have been removed and the sand around it combed; presumably by seven maids with seven mops. The council, whom I imagine are responsible for this fine effort, are to be congratulated warmly.

 

There is a certain pleasure in seeing the results of others’ work, when those results are worthy of admiration. In this cynical age, when we are, understandably, preoccupied with corruption and the theft of our taxes by those in places of trust, it is encouraging to know that there are those in our councils who not only know what to do, but how to do it.

 

Similarly the road in which I live is a dirt track that is graded about every six months. As it slopes down the tarmac at the T-junction every heavy shower creates ruts and crevices. The council have now laid a stretch of gravel on the surface, for which those of us who live there are grateful.

 

Maybe those seven maids have also been using their new brooms to sweep clean.

 

Reading up for the paragraphs on seaweed I consulted Seaweed, a handbook on the benefits of the vegetable, by Valeri G. Cooksley, published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, New York (2007), and Two Oceans, a splendid guide to the coast around our country, by Branch, Griffiths, Branch and Beckley, published by David Phillip, Cape Town and Johannesburg (1994). My copy of the latter is a fifth impression (2002).

 

My reading of Two Oceans seemed to imply that wrack is found only on the West Coast; however, I was not going to miss the chance to use the headline to this column.