Taking a Door for a Walk.

To understand this story you have to have an idea of Noordhoek beach. It is a long, windswept curve of brilliant white sea sand terminated about 3 km from its only access point in Noordhoek by some rocks. The beach continues beyond the rocks till it finally winds up at Kommetjie. According to a website (http://noordhoekbeach.co.za/) It runs from Noordhoek to Slangkoppunt lighthouse on the other side of Kommetjie, but for me Noordhoek beach ends at the rocks that mark the geological structure that results in Sunset Break. A huge surfing break about a kilometre off shore and only approached by the bravest or maddest in the surfing community.

The beach faces the Atlantic Ocean, next stop South America. Because there is no windbreak between False Bay and Noorhoek beach the beach has sand dunes about 200 m back from the sea and beyond them huge wetlands, then suburbia starts. Problem is that when the huge South Easter wind blows, Noordhoek beach becomes an impossible waste with wind driven sand that gets in your hair, your mouth and strips the skin off your legs. On a good day with no wind it is beautiful and undeveloped. It has two surf breaks. One is the Hoek tucked away in the corner under Chapman's Peak and is only recommended for experienced surfers as it breaks directly onto jagged rocks. Not for the faint hearted or the incompetent. The other, Dunes is about halfway to the rocks along the curve of the beach . When it is working, it is a brilliant wave. The only disadvantage is of course you need to walk to the break, surf and then after good surf you have to walk back to the parking lot.

The beach, because of its length and flatness is good for horse riding and a number of the local stables have out rides to the beach for paying customers.

The facilities on Noordhoek beach are not brilliant so it is seldom heavily populated by people lolling around on the beach under beach umbrellas. People walk on Noordhoek beach, they surf, walk the dogs, fly kites, but seldom if ever do people stay put for the entire day. It is a beach that you visit and are gone in an hour.

A unique feature of beach is that it has a flat area bounded on one side by the dunes and on the other side by the sea. In summer this flat area is filled by salt water after spring high tides and is populated by an assortment of tiny creatures. In winter the wetlands fill up and overflow into this area filling it with brackish fresh water. The same creatures that celebrate the summer spring high tides also celebrate the winter rainfall, a situation apparently unique in the world. The recent increase in flamingos visiting the Cape has resulted in a population of beautiful pink birds snacking in the water between the sea and the dunes.

Some years ago (I didn't hear anyone mutter some decades) I went surfing on Noorhoek Beach. My surfing buddy having moved on some years back so I went out alone and, being lazy and being unwilling to traipse all the way to Dunes I had tried to surf closer to the access. It was a disastrous decision and I didn't last too long before heading back to the car park. As I reached the car park a friend of mine who lived up on the slopes of Chapman's Peak came running down.

"You are just the person I wanted to see."

Oops. Not a good start to any conversation I have found.

"Why?" Cautiously.

"Cos you are a lifesaver, you know first aid and there are two women hurt on the beach."

What had happened is that one of the stables had provided horses for an outride on the beach. Two of the horses had bolted and thrown their riders. An ambulance stood in the car park but it did not have 4x4 capability deal with sand. The women were thus nearly a kilometre from help.

"Do you have a door?" I ask.

I get a funny look.

"A door not attached to the house. Loose. Carry injured people on."

Enlightenment dawns on my friends face.

"Ah. Yes, in the garage."

We go to his garage, retrieve the door and set off down the beach. The closest woman is by now on her feet and being assisted to gently walk back to the parking area. We push on. As we get to the second woman, a 4x4 arrives with a trauma board on the back, loads the woman onto it and zooms away leaving us with door and a long walk back to the parking lot. We are now left in the middle of Noordhoek beach with a door and a kilometre walk back

We decide that a rest is in order and we sit on our door on a sand dune and watch the sea for a while.

Eventually we start to walk back, carrying the door. Now this is where things started to get weird. The people who had witnessed or knew about the incident of the horse riders are gone from the beach and a new group of people who do not know about the horse riding incident are now on the beach. Here am I in a wet suit walking along the beach with a door. The first people we meet look at us and hurry on by. The next is a bunch of surfers. My friend turns to me and say loudly enough to be heard, "I told you you needed to put a fin on the thing. No wonder you couldn't control it." Silence from the surfers.

We continue getting weird looks from passers-by, but the ultimate comment came just as we hit the parking lot. A man stops, stares at us for a moment or two, then says. "Ok, what did you do with the house?"

No answer to that question was there?

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