Cape Towns Beaches: Big Bay

Had a lovely walk on the beach yesterday and remembered how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful country. Although Big bay is not the best place to lie and get a tan due to the prevailing wind, and the amount of “life” that washes up there. It definitely has the most picturesque view of Table Mountain.

The beach was full of Bluebottles yesterday, which are a kind of jellyfish, also known as the “Portuguese man of war”. It has a blue flotation bubble that keeps it at the surface, but its tentacles can reach 10m in length. Can give you a nice little sting if you touch them. Ice, Vinegar or Urine will take away the pain. Since most beach goers are carrying Ice, or Vinegar….. I wonder who figured that out first. “Here, why don’t I wee on you!”

We also stumbled upon a dead seal, but it took me a few minutes to work out what it was. It was very decomposed and its skull was bare. It looked like one of the skeksies from “The Dark Crystal” and freaked me out a bit. Talulah (61/2) was quite happy, poking it with a stick and trying to wobble its fangs out. I imagine that corpses like this were the inspirations behind legends of sea monsters.

Big bay is a highlight for visiting windsurfers and Kite Surfers. Right now they are doing a major development of the land behind it, building shopping centres and apartments. There is also a proposal to build a hovercraft station there. Daft idea if you ask me. They predict it will be operational only 80% of the time due to weather and surf conditions. So what happens when you take it to work and then can’t get home?? There was a petition organised by www.savebigbay.com ,but it seems to have vanished. I will try find out what has happened to it.