Dolphin Address 10
August 16th 2007
Far, far away and as soon as everywhere waves kitted up with snow-white hoodies against again clouds about to shower. The wind rustles the grass, or is it rain? The weather is un-time-able and changing rags in the rain is so much sad.
From under the water you see a carpet of rain, splashing inside, flapping with the waves. On good-day sunshine’s the vizz doubles.
Last year Dusty was mostly in a cove to which only seasoned aficionados braved walls, electric fences, bulls and precipices. The wisdom of old, ‘make no effort, Dusty will find you’ suddenly goes big. For weeks she has been terrorising White Strand with her grace and adora, a three k’s from Milltown-Malbay.
The location itself disagrees in various ways. It hosts a nearly town like conglomerate of trailer homes, brick-a-bracs that painfully wail against the savage surroundings of a virginal wasteland. The sands slowly deepen for a 150 meter and are swept over at high tide. The slightest wave brush dulls the vizz.
And there are people in and upon the water. By diving lots and fast swims I can mostly distract her attention from surfboarders and canuisances, but sail- and motorboats I cannot match.
I have written times and again about Dusty’s behaviour. Still, surprises keep coming. Like her prey behaviour. She swims away and circles me just out of my sight, sometimes like a shadow in the haze. I think she knows the reach of my vizz, for in murky water she keeps closer. She approaches me from my rear, but even cleverer than before. I like to hang out on a kelp strand more or less sitting to last longer underwater. To keep out of my sight she usually hangs vertically behind me. She plays her own little games at which she tries to outsmart me.
Similarly when we swim towards each other. Everyone knows the situation in which you move towards someone who keeps making the same avoidances. Dusty keeps her turn to herself until the very last moment.
Maybe it was the unpredictability of her conduct that collided with the strict social structures of her kin. Fact is that Dusty this summer has made lots of friends, despite the wishful warning on the pin-board.
Jan Ploeg, meadow Fanore, august 16st 2007
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