Oct 7 - Day 44Green is for the rain forest. Bright, vibrant green is everywhere. Today when we left, the sun was out. The forest was alive with life. All the chlorophyll in the trees & plants were sucking up the sun while they had a chance. Slugs everywhere were feeding of the wet & soft ground. Truly a spectacular sight. I didn't take many pictures. That's O.K. since no picture could actually ever capture the beauty of the rain forest. I'm glad I got to see it because it may not be there forever. The loggers are getting close.
Well, anyway, today we rode from a very wet rain forest to the pacific coast. Finally! We are on the ocean front with nothing but miles and miles of water. John & I walked for hours today. We took our boots & socks off and walked in the cold water & sand. The waves kept rolling in and crashing on the sandy beach. The waves echoed power as they hit the hard wet sand. Small ripple pools would come and go. The firm sand underneath our toes was cold, but not so cold as to bother. Its supportive qualities felt like Birkenstocks worn for the very fist time.
As we looked down into the sand many forms of life were undoubtedly below us. What we could see were various forms of sea weed broken, torn and washed ashore by the powerful waves. Broken sand dollars all over, probably caused by the hoarding sea gulls. In all our time spent walking, we only found 1 fully intact sand dollar. We admired it and left it for the sea gulls. The other interesting sign of life was a large barnacle shell (skeleton) found embedded in the sand. If I were an in insect or other small microscopic creature, it would have looked like a volcano.
However, even with all the signs of life, the most fascinating thing was the sound of the ocean. It is by far the most therapeutic sound I have ever heard....Even greater than the call of a MN loon. I could have walked for hours, even all night, listening to this sound. I look forward to falling asleep listening to the waves crashing onto the shore.
The other intriguing thing to me was the patterns of the sand and the battle between the water flowing in vs flowing out. The sand looked stratified. The patterns resembled ripples, layer upon layer. Some layers looked like fans & feathers with mixtures of dark and light sand. The actual sand was so fine, not the large grain sand I'm used to in the mid west lakes. This is likely due to the continual and powerful flow of the pacific ocean. I guess our little shrimpy lakes in MN can't generate enough power to grind rock into dust.
God I love the ocean, sand & water. I really could sit out on the sand for days and not care.
3 comments:
Interesting to me to read and hear peoples reactions to the sound of the seas and oceans. I guess it's facinating to me because it just doesn't do the same thing for me as it obviously did for you and others like you.
I'm not diminishing that experience for you or anyone, but for me I get that same sort of peace from my surroundings here in Iowa. Guess I'm just wired a bit differently than most.
Great post, I enjoyed it very much.
You know Mark, I know exactly what you're saying. I've often felt like there are water people and there are mountain people, and I swear that, while I think the ocean is beautiful, my heart belongs to the mountains. If I can blend the two, super, but if I have to choose one or the other, you know which direction I'm going every single time.
There is something about the smell and sound of a warm ocean beach though, I will say... and it sounds pretty darn fine right now!
Cheers,
MG
BTW... I enjoyed the post very much too. Thanks Jason!!
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