Day 32 - Crabs, Clams at Low and High Tide

Hey everyone!

Today was a wonderful day! Absolutely perfect! We didn't really do anything - and yet we experienced so much!

When we woke up in the morning, the sun was already shining and it was relatively warm. We grabbed our chairs and sat down on the beach. Then Kevin had the idea: let's get our diving shoes and see how far we can walk out into the lake now. I really liked the idea, so we got the boots and camera and set off. First, we had to walk through the mud to get the stick that was stuck to measure the water depth later :).

After that, we waded into the water. It quickly became knee-deep and we walked a bit further to the north. There were crabs and clams everywhere on the beach, it was really exciting! Every now and then we saw locals digging and fishing things out of the water. Curiously, we walked by and looked into their pot. There were clams inside. But not like the ones you know from the restaurant, but ones like the thousands lying on the beach - just still closed. The two men started talking to us, but one could only speak Portuguese and the other a bit of French... None of the languages we can speak... With gestures, they explained to us that you can eat these clams. We're not quite sure if they meant that they have a spicy taste or if they taste very delicious with spicy seasoning. We walked a little further on the clay-like ground and observed the crabs. Some of them were relatively large (body slightly bigger than a 5 pound note) and some were really tiny (about the size of a grain of rice)!

On the way back, we picked up a few clams that we happened to walk by and brought them to the two men. They started laughing, said something like 'well done' and were very happy. In return, one of them explained how to differentiate between male and female crabs and how to hold them in your hand. That was really great! Even though we hardly understood each other, it was super interesting and we learned a lot!

Somehow, the mentality here is already very different from ours... Right from the beginning, when we curiously looked into their pot, they were really happy that we were interested in what they were doing. And then the joy over a few more clams... It was a great experience! If the opportunity arises, we will definitely try to 'talk' more with the locals :).

Afterwards, we walked back to our chairs. Kevin went to the camper for a moment, and in the meantime, I sat down at the water's edge and watched the spectacle. You could really call it that... At first, I only saw stones and plants, but after a short time, the whole ground came alive! Suddenly, there were about 10 crabs on a square meter, all running back and forth. One even burrowed itself directly under my toe. :)

Later, when we got hungry, we had burgers again. We still had some of the delicious Angus beef from yesterday and we were really looking forward to the tasty lunch.

While eating, suddenly the current changed and the low tide was over - the high tide came! After about an hour, the water was almost back to the level it was when we arrived yesterday! It's so surprising and at such a fast pace! As if someone drained the water quickly and then filled it up again...

As we were sitting there, Kevin suddenly saw a snake and jumped up faster than lightning. We wanted to change the location - somewhere with not so many tall grasses. Yesterday, I saw a great place on 'Google Earth' and we headed straight for it.

On the way there, we drove past a huuuuuuge abandoned building. Of course, we couldn't resist... It was an incredibly large area and we were really curious what it used to be. What we found out: there had been a fire there, a real big one... Black wooden beams were lying everywhere and the remaining structures were visibly exposed to the fire. In one building, even the upper floor had collapsed, hanging there as if it were part of the wall. Nevertheless, we couldn't resist and explored the first floor of one of the buildings.... We really want to know what it was.... Very small rooms, all painted in light colors with large windows and each room had its own toilet... No bathroom - just a toilet... For a jail cell, as we initially thought, the windows would be too big and not secure enough, but for anything else... Well, definitely strange.

After we had explored everything, we continued to the selected place. But when we arrived, it wasn't that great... Quite far away from the beach, in a large parking lot... Well, just not the real deal. Since we were already there, we decided to check out the beach. It was nice, but it was so windy that the sand was whipping onto our skin. So off we went again!

We drove another 15 minutes to another spot that Kevin had picked out. However, a large part of it was taken over by sand and there were already several cars parked there. In the end, we decided to return to our last spot - despite the possibility of snakes, because it's really beautiful here and we have our peace :)

Heyyy, we still have to enjoy this, once the holiday season starts, it's over with finding 'Egoplätzchen' :).

Now we're going to enjoy the evening and do nothing anymore ;)

See you tomorrow!!