In an overwhelming society, the sardine run can be a place of quiet contemplation and solitude.As the shoals moved up the coast last week, national debate and protest raged in the public domain about Eskom, Karpowership, gas and oil exploration rights, cholera, dead children and heinous corruption in Hammanskraal, and here, dire warnings about the potential for this killer “Third World” disease in Makhanda.
A decade after Solly Fowles, now 45, made local history riding a giant wave off the East London Western Wall, the father towed his son, Joel, now 17, on a Yamaha 1800 jet ski into huge surf off nearby Eastern Beach.
Two people bitten by hungry sharks last week were merely a hors d’oeuvre ahead of their main meal, the greatest shoal on Earth.The iconic sardine run is starting to appear off Boknes and heading to East London, said the metro’s only ocean tour operator, John Barry of Southern Cross Cruises.
In a society filled with dead ends and dread, it brings a glad heart to know that people in the community have come together to defend their local rivers. Most EC waterways are in the midst of environmental degradation and ultimately face destruction as a vital ecological and lifestyle element of life.