Thursday 27 August 2009

Plage de Campitellu

It’s been very hot and humid recently – not surprising really as it’s August - but we wanted to go to the beach, so we chose the Plage de Campitellu where there is often a breeze. We decided to avoid the main part of the beach and settled close to the headland where there are rocks and the water was relatively shallow.



The sea was an amazing shade of turquoise blue, and when we first arrived there was hardly a ripple except for the odd snorkel breaking the surface. We’d hardly had time to lay the towels out before Guillaume was in the water looking for fish amongst the rocks. Those goggles turned out to be a superb investment for 2€!



The sea was as warm as bath water but as the breeze picked up, the waves were pummelling the shore, taking us with them. Guillaume loved it, but after I’d crashed into the rocks twice and injured my leg, and Florence had made a daring sea rescue to haul Guillaume out by his arm like a limp haddock, we decided enough was enough and we retired to the beach to play tennis on the sand.



We’d been idly watching a bloke fishing from the shore while we ate our picnic, and had been quite impressed at the number of fish he’d caught. After a while a diver appeared and he got quite cocky showing off his haul until the diver imitated the ‘you call that a knife’ scene from Crocodile Dundee, reached into his net and pulled out a huge rascasse on a spear! It went quiet after that and he moved further along the beach…



Rascasse are also known as Scorpion fish, and it’s easy to see why! They have a huge head and spines, and live amongst the rocks and plants at depths of between 5m & 800m. They can be either brown or red in colour and taste much better than they look – yum!

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