Beach Clean Up
My friend Debbie arrived back in Zakynthos late on Monday evening after a 5 week visit back to the UK. She was keen to get down to the beach to check on a local stray dog, known as Splash, that frequents the beach & she has sort of adopted. So I joined her this afternoon, as Wednesday is now my day off & not Friday as it originally was.
I met up with Debbs & her 6 year old daughter at the Hotel Louis Zante Beach & we set off along the beach in the direction of Kalamaki. It was a fabulous day, bright sunshine & quite warm too. As we were walking we noticed quite a lot of rubbish on the beach. Debbie has often collected rubbish along the beach in the past, particularly so because she worked as a volunteer for Archelon, the organisation that works to protect the endangered loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and any rubbish left, as well as being an eyesore, can cause severe damage to life & limb of the turtles.
We walked the whole length of the beach down as far as Kalamaki & as we neared Kalamaki we had started to pick up all sorts of rubbish along the way to put in the bin at the end near to the Crystal Beach Hotel. We decided that we would try to pick up as much as we could between us on the way back. We found several large plastic bin bags which we utilised by filling up with all sorts of junk, including plastic bottles, glass bottles, bits of polystyrene, odd flip flops, plastic tubes that were once 'glowsticks' filled with their toxic content & pieces of fishing net & line. We even found a rusted up skeleton of what was once a beach umbrella stuffed into a crack in a rock. I must say I was surprised at how much we managed to collect & you do have to wonder about the mentality of the people that leave their rubbish on the beach when it is such a simple thing to just take the rubbish away with them & put it in a bin.
Bearing in mind it's the middle of December, Debbie's daughter decided to take her shoes off & roll up her trousers & paddle in the edge of the sea during part of our walk back up the beach.
With the activity of rubbish collecting we were all feeling quite hot by the time we finished.
As we were coming off the beach Debbie spotted 'Splash' the dog & fortunately he looked as though he'd been fairing quite well. He'd been suffering with an injured eye up until Debbie had left for the UK but it had cleared up a lot which was good to see. Debbie pulled out the bag of dried dog food she'd brought with her & fed Splash & gave him some fresh water too.
Anyhow, we did our bit for the environment today & for the safety of the turtles in particular. We may have prevented injury or death to one of these beautiful creatures so it was well worth the effort & I'm sure we will do the same again over the Winter whenever we get the chance. I'm going to try to remember to always take a bin bag or similar with me now if I know I'm going to the beach.
I met up with Debbs & her 6 year old daughter at the Hotel Louis Zante Beach & we set off along the beach in the direction of Kalamaki. It was a fabulous day, bright sunshine & quite warm too. As we were walking we noticed quite a lot of rubbish on the beach. Debbie has often collected rubbish along the beach in the past, particularly so because she worked as a volunteer for Archelon, the organisation that works to protect the endangered loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and any rubbish left, as well as being an eyesore, can cause severe damage to life & limb of the turtles.
We walked the whole length of the beach down as far as Kalamaki & as we neared Kalamaki we had started to pick up all sorts of rubbish along the way to put in the bin at the end near to the Crystal Beach Hotel. We decided that we would try to pick up as much as we could between us on the way back. We found several large plastic bin bags which we utilised by filling up with all sorts of junk, including plastic bottles, glass bottles, bits of polystyrene, odd flip flops, plastic tubes that were once 'glowsticks' filled with their toxic content & pieces of fishing net & line. We even found a rusted up skeleton of what was once a beach umbrella stuffed into a crack in a rock. I must say I was surprised at how much we managed to collect & you do have to wonder about the mentality of the people that leave their rubbish on the beach when it is such a simple thing to just take the rubbish away with them & put it in a bin.
Bearing in mind it's the middle of December, Debbie's daughter decided to take her shoes off & roll up her trousers & paddle in the edge of the sea during part of our walk back up the beach.
With the activity of rubbish collecting we were all feeling quite hot by the time we finished.
As we were coming off the beach Debbie spotted 'Splash' the dog & fortunately he looked as though he'd been fairing quite well. He'd been suffering with an injured eye up until Debbie had left for the UK but it had cleared up a lot which was good to see. Debbie pulled out the bag of dried dog food she'd brought with her & fed Splash & gave him some fresh water too.
Anyhow, we did our bit for the environment today & for the safety of the turtles in particular. We may have prevented injury or death to one of these beautiful creatures so it was well worth the effort & I'm sure we will do the same again over the Winter whenever we get the chance. I'm going to try to remember to always take a bin bag or similar with me now if I know I'm going to the beach.
posted by Sandra at
7:30 am
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