sea shells, sea shells on the sea shore

One of the things I love about Bermuda is the wonderful, poignant scent of the ocean. On most evenings, all it takes is one whiff to transport me back to my pre school/kindergarten years in Dubai, where we'd spend evenings at the corniche or the boardwalk, driving around in our little motorized car & motorbike (yes, we had them back then & all I can say is thanks mom & dad). Another whiff takes me back to the hot days we'd spend at the beach, bbqing all day, along with clam digging for us kids following an all night crab catching session for the adults, while we kids warily watched. The onset of construction in the past 10 to 15 years has minimized & in some cases, eliminated some beaches (apparently Dubai now houses 23% of the world's cranes). The crabs & clams are not as plentiful like they were 25 years ago. (Sigh! I am getting to the point where I now use the phrase '25 years ago'). Back then Mom would teach us to look for the bright green tuffs sporadically sprouting from the sand, revealed during the low tide of the day. Digging these tuffs of green & then some sand would yield us a clam. By the end of the day there'd be enough to fill about two to three medium sized buckets. Multitudes of clams, I tell you & oh so delicious once mom cooked them Indian style!

So it's no surprise that the first thing I looked for here on Bermuda's much smaller but beautiful beaches was the evidence of green tuffs peeking from the sand. Alas, there were none. The most you may find are crabs by the rocks, infinitely shy & extremely fast on their legs, but definitely no clams. We have the reefs to blame er... thank for that. While the reefs keep the unwanted sharks & who knows what other marine carnivores out of Bermuda's shores, it also keeps out much of what you would find on any other beach - shells, conchs, that sort of thing. Unless you're cruising the beach in the aftermath of a storm, which does tend to wash ashore some beachy tokens. Any other time, you will leave empty handed. Unless you visit the souvenir shops & take with you some beach memorabilia, but word on the street is that these are imported from Florida. So if you're looking for something plentiful & authentically Bermudian, then its pink laced sand would be it. Unfortunate about the shells, yes but given the choice between sharks or shells, well need I say more....