A walk along the beach

Subject: A walk along the beach

The sun had just appeared over the horizon and the early morning light suffuses everything in a welcoming light. The sound of the rhythmic crash of waves rolling ashore right along the coastline, a rhythm not quite set in the stars but in the equally mysterious effect of the moons gravity, one moment drawing up the oceans around Sydney whilst releasing its grip on those off Swansea.

This morning the waters were high, the beach reduced to a narrow strip of sand transformed by the tides bounty, thousands of small shells thrown up and stranded as the sea retreated. Each shell once the home of some crustacean a shelter for some sea creature in a world below the water line.
The sand is wet and smooth as each droplet  of sand nestles into place alongside another as the water runs away for the sand to dry. Millions upon millions of particals of sand which form the basis for all that lies in the space between the waves, a subsoil to provide a unique uniformity between the landmass.
As we walk the air is fresh as only the sea air can be, little or no pollution only the slight briny salty smell which seems to open up the air passages and allow more air in. Crunch crunch the shells underfoot are flattened by our Gulliver like weight as we plough on impervious to the destruction. The flotsam and jetsam detritus that is of a different nature to the shells also litters the waterline. A waterlogged wallet a ragged shirt, a branch of a tree and an empty can of beer, they are from that other world, a world on our side of the divide between the aquatic and our earthbound existence.
The sun is rising higher as the light takes on a harder edged, more invasive  as it differentiates the shadows from hard objects. That comforting early morning watery light that filters the real from the unreal is disappearing fast and soon the strip of sand will lead us up to the path which runs around the Swansea Bay a favourite commute for hundreds of walkers and cyclists who soon begin to appear as the office bell rings it's invitation to work and make money.
For us no such unsavoury call, we have the day ahead and breakfast to find.