Ebbe und Flut - Austern

Ebb and flood,  low tide and high tide, form the basis for all living things in Bretagne.

Two characteristic industries make use of this phenomenon: the oyster farmers and the salt farmers. 

This is about the oysters, these little glibbery molluscs that taste surprisingly well, once you have overcome a natural aversion of eating something alive and so ugly. And they will die a cozy death in the warm wet mucous comfort of a human mouth, won't they?  There should be a poem about the oyster: cool and smooth, soft, a fine and subtly sweet taste, slightly salty, a reminiscence of grapefruit and cucumber, with a gelatine-like consistency. I can understand their reputation for supporting male Casanovas but I feel they might be equally potent for women ... 

Creuses, the Pacific Oysters. 
Plates, their European sisters, taste even better, they are the rarest and best.

Oysters are raised in bags laid out on oyster tables in the tidal zone.

Work hours depend on the tide time table. Bags need regular turning to loosen the oysters because oysters tend to cling and grow together. 

Farming the ocean floor

It is hard to believe looking at their living conditions in the brackish mud, but oysters from the Belon river taste the best. 

The bay of Cancale has several hectars with oyster farming that are only visible for a few hours during low tide. 

Coming home.

They are sorted according to size. 

Before being shipped or sold on the market, oysters have a resting period in clean sea water to bring out their natural flavours.

Hand to mouth

Locals harvest "escaped" oysters during low tide.

Enjoy!

Ebbe und Flut

The German words Ebbe und Flut have a much more emotional connotation than the more technical English "low tide and high tide". Ebb and flood - Ebbe und Flut - you can hear the water coming and going in the rhythm of the words. Ebbe might mean anything, from low tide to nothing happening (between two people)  to being broke -
and Flut is the antithesis: a flood of emotions, a torrent of things, something uncontrollable, overwhelming and sometimes dangerous.

Nothing much in the picture, no foreground, no background, just water and sky and a line separating it. 

The first days of creation before God separated land and water.... 
But I hate pompousness and abhor clichés - so you can see two sea gulls on the water, that I left in the first picture, possibly having escaped from Noah's ark enjoying the first sunrays ...

Gravitational forces of moon and sun cause this effect that constantly moves trillions of tons of water on the surface of the oceans. In Europe it can best be observed on the coast of northern Bretagne, which has one of the highest tidal ranges worldwide with a difference of up to 13 m from low to high tide due to the layout of the land. Kilometers of land are laid bare during low tide and disappear under the ocean six and a half hours later only to reappear after a further six and a half hours in an endless ever fascinating cycle of power and retreat, covering up and laying bare, flooding and grounding.

I had been in Brittany over thirty years ago on an excursion to collect red algae. At university, during a moment when a severe bout of Wanderlust virus had hit me, I had chosen a course on algae systematics which came with an trip to the marine station at Roscoff in Brittany to collect and classify red algae. 

Rhodophyta

There is beauty in the tiniest and lowliest of living beings. 

The city of St. Malo at low tide.

Its medieval walls are protected by wooden storm breakers that look like sculptures emaciated from the regular onslaught of salt water. 

A tidal pool. During low tide you can have a safe swim in fresh and cold sea water or take a quick walk across the rocks to an old fort. You have to know about the tides though - otherwise you might involuntarily be stuck on a cold and windy tiny island for 12 hours... 

The tide is coming in. 

These are not the tips of the Himalaya mountains covered in snow up to their necks during some millenia long ice age but a long exposure of the incoming flood, circling the rocks on the beach until they disappear under the water for six hours before they are set free again. 

High tide in the bay of Cancale with Mont Saint Michel in the background.

It is always recommended to be well anchored when the tide comes in. 

Visit : Documenta 14, Kassel

A short visit to Documenta 14 in Kassel before they close their doors to see the what the curators thought was important in the art world for these past years.

Smoke (Daniel Knorr) coming up from the Fridericianum signaling with a „Rauchzeichen“ that the exhibition is opened. The fire brigades got used to false alarms ...

Next to it the Parthenon of forbidden or banned books (Maria Minujin) , not yet in smoke. It is amazing what books were or are still banned anywhere in the world when you look at the titles. 

Many works address migration themes – vessels, borders, walls ...  

 The kitchen department for cooking up borders

I liked this exhibit best ! 

"housing options in sewer pipes" 

My home is my Castle. 

Tanzanian Safari - A Bush Walk in Tarangire NP

On a normal photo safari one would usually not venture out into the bush on foot but strictly stay on the vehicle or in the tents and on pathways in the camp and follow all the rules set by the guides. Very few camps offer walks - we had done one in Kenya ten years ago where we saw insects, beetles and spiders, plants and their medicinal uses and similar . It was interesting though not comparable to a game drive. Olivers Camp in Tarangire NP offered a guided bush walk with a ranger and guard of a very different, very rewarding kind. Somehow very unique with a primordial feeling - just us and the bush, on eye-level with the animals, no protection (except a guard with a gun which he said he has never needed to make use of so far). 
I took two cameras with me and chose something reasonably light-weight: the D810 with a 20mm prime lens and the D500 with the ultra-light 300 mm f4 prime.

We set out from the camp early in the morning with our guide.  It became clear right away that he had grown up in the bush, knew all the noises, smells, the animals and their behaviour and reactions to threats, their capabilities of vision, hearing and smell, the tracks. He tested the wind direction, sniffed the scents. We went down from the camp across the river and after an hour of walking sat down on the ground on the other side a little elevated behind bushes to watch the river and the animals that were coming down to the water for drinking. Zebras, wildebeest, impala, buffalo, occasionally an elephant, moved in and out of the picture, a fish eagle was sitting high up on a tree watching over the peaceful valley.  

Buffalo in the distance

quite close - the wind was blowing favourably in our direction

After a while we continued our walk 

Waterbuck - We are quite an attraction - 

The zebra seem to wonder why we walk ...

Termite tracks on the bark of this tree.

..and found a place behind a fallen tree just above a mudhole.

... and here I don't have my usual pictures to show. I could not take any, just one silent iphone photo. This buffalo came slowly trundling along the track, totally relaxed, snorted and grunted in the water and lay down to take a thorough mudbath. He was so close, we did not dare breathe let alone take a picture with a loud shutter noise! So we quickly got this silent shot with a phone to not disturb him. Apparently their eyesight is abominable... 

Another buffalo followed the first, then a family of elephants came out of the bush and continued along the muddy path, but once they were all gone, we crossed over the muddy stretch and went back to the camp.