Coastal Cleanup at Kite Beach

Today was one just one of those perfect days. I started the morning with a Carlucci's breakfast, the Springboks beat Fiji in one of the Rugby World Cup games and the weather in Cape Town was just perfect. To top it all was the fact that it is weekend.

If it hadn't been for my injured leg from my recent motorbike accident, I probably would've been in the water with the rest of the guys catching waves. But intsead of that I decided to do my bit for the environment and joined the International Coastal Clean-up event. This event is internationaly held on the 3rd Saturday in September, and today happened to be that Saturday. Armed wit a plactic bag and some gloves I hit the beach searching for litter.

At first I was under the impression that it was something organized by the local kitesurfing community, so decided that I also needed to be there seeing that I also make use of this beautiful beach. When I arrived there I was actually amazed to see how many people were involved, and I think not many of them have ever been in the water to kite surf. Instead it was people from every ceed and colour and from as young as 4 years to about 70 years of age. All having one thing in common...the love for nature and the concern that our environment is deteriorating.  It was amazing to see what was picked up, even an old ironing board. Plastic, broken glass and polistyrene was probably the most common litter found, but at least I also picked up something useful, a one way valve for a kite which usually costs around fifty bucks.

After all the rubbish was collected a picture was taken of all the nature lovers and their rubbish. One would think that the larger the size of the rubbish heap in the end, the more succesful the day was, but a smaller rubbish heap actualy is a a good sign...less rubbish on the beach than last year.