crab

I hear distant laughter.

Who else could be on this small island, just a stones throw away from the shore, yet so barren and seemingly uninteresting that I have never seen a single silhouette on it.

I walk on, my imagination running wild, thinking about ghosts and sea creatures inhabiting the deep blue around the island.

But when I reach the tip of the land, I see the source of the joy that drifts over the wind to me; three surfers are perched on their surfboards in the sea, occasionally one of them paddles into a wave, doesn’t catch it, exclaims and re-joins the group.

Of course. Who else would I find at Crab Island but a few thrill seekers marvelling at the churn of the ocean, riding its rise and fall and laughing out in pure delight.

Crab Island is a mystical place.

All that is on it is an old coastguard hut – a cone-shaped, stone-build shelter – other than that no trace of a human soul, but the occasional buoy that has drifted onto the land and has wedged itself into stones, a single green flip flop and a marble I find amongst a pile of shells.

The pools here are filled with shells I have never seen before; deep reds and greens, snow white cylindrical swirls and purple patterns. The water is crystal clear and the shells are plenty and look as if they have been placed there by artists hand; a careful curation of gems.

I cannot help but sit down at the pools and stare into the water for ages, now and again picking out a shell that has particularly caught my attention; mesmerised.

I feel peaceful.

The sun is shining down on me and the hard molluscs on the limestone press into my bare feet as I move over the rocks.

We have to leave much too soon.

I want to stay another few hours, walk slowly around the circumference of the island, smell the fresh sea breeze and for a little while pretend like there is nothing else but the Atlantic around me.

I hold on to a smooth pebble I found on the shore all the way back to the main shore and look behind me, as the three surfers are flanking us, paddling back in to replace fluidity for solid ground.