POST ONE: Clearing up the Beach

I arrived to Comporta Portugal a few days ago. After being back in the city again, It feels great to escape the urban chaos of home and finally breathe. I am consumed by the sweet smell of pine trees that pervade the never-ending forests and the taste of the clean air. Neon green rice fields, silver eucalyptus forests or white soft desert beaches will engulf my view at any given time here. Nature’s sounds are music to my ears. Here, I can feel the earth pulsating with life. The sandy breeze, the croaking crickets, the birds, animals and plants are all in sync and I feel calm.

This morning we were gliding through the rice fields on the Quads, to get to the beach which is hidden behind the sand valley up ahead. We were feeling the winds force against us as we drove 40 miles per hour in the open air, I felt just like a bird. Arriving to the beach in itself is certainly an adventure. My mother, my two aunts, the dogs and me were crammed into two Quads. A few minutes of turbulence and my face being slapped by incoming tree branches later we found ourselves in a white crystalline paradise. Like Antarctica, the beach here is exempt of any other person. The only human trace to be found are the Quad tracks. We were encompassed by a long stripe of white sand which was splattered with green shrubs and a few cactus, and an infinite horizon of dark blue ocean. The sea sparkled with agitation. Her waters are so cold and volatile that they remind you how to feel alive again. Her huge waves seemed to come in sync with my breathing and for a minute everything in the world except this perfect image faded away into oblivion.

This illusion of being in some sort of paradise was soon broken when my puppy Dexter wanting to play catch and throw, picked up a piece of plastic that was buried in the sand, thinking it was a toy and brought it over to me. At first this was the only piece that we saw but I decided to walk along the coast just in case there were more. More was an understatement. It didn't take long for plastic and trash to be the only thing I could see. I was in a land made of Plastic. I couldn't escape the bright blue fishing nets, squashed plastic bottles or stylophone chunks. The shiny twinkle of plastic and synthetic electric colours caught my eye everywhere I looked, contrasting with the soft nature. We spent the rest of the afternoon clearing up the beach. It was like a treasure hunt. The garbage on the beach is similar to the icebergs in the way that it is much smaller on the surface and the majority is buried deep under the sand. Sometimes the ocean would spit out waste onto the shore and if we were fast enough we collected it before the waves would take it away again. We collected two full bags on the first day. According to scientists, there are more pieces of microplasitcs in the oceans than stars in the sky. It frustrates me how even in such remote areas like the wilderness of Comporta, human impact is still unescapable. I feel determined to change this. We allocated a section of the beach to clean up for each day there.

The second day towards the end of the afternoon another family drove up to the beach. At first they stared at us in confusion as if we were mad. It was strange for them to see us cleaning the beach, almost comical. Yet I managed to break this barrier when I went up to them and asked if they wanted to help me. The kids ended up taking over my aunts role in helping me and we spent one hour picking up litter before finishing our day with a cool dip in the ocean at golden hour as the sun set.

**DEXTER AND ME CLEANING THE BEACH PART 1**

**DEXTER AND ME CLEANING THE BEACH PART 2**