“The sea breeze makes it lovely,” says Judy, her feet in the surf. Beads of sweat glisten on her upper lip.
“You wanted to come out here in the middle of the night...
...to watch those sparkling waves,” Ralph mutters sleepily from the dry sand.
“Isn’t it beautiful? Noctiluca, Light at Night?”
Ralph sputters; rolls his eyes. “It’s algae, you know? You’re standing in stinky algae.”
“It’s a chemical reaction, bioluminescence.” Judy bends down, cups water in her hands, and splashes Ralph.
“Yuck, that stuff contains ammonium. I’m gonna die!”
Judy drags him along, pushing him underwater while kissing him. “Then we’ll go down together. Horny! Our last spark…”
In the North Sea, along the Belgian Dutch coast, the chance of bioluminescence is greatest in June and July. So, after a few warm summer days and thorough preparation on various websites and social media, we set out in the middle of the night. Hunting for the infamous, sparkling blue light that illuminates the waves.
The first night, after a drive of nearly forty-five minutes, we arrived at “Strand Beukel,” a stretch of beach near the village of ‘s-Gravenzande, a few kilometers south of The Hague. Coincidentally, this was also the first weekend that all schools had started their summer holidays. The result: partying youngsters, music, and campfires on the beach. We struggled our way through it all, camera at the ready, only to see nothing but dark waves once we reached the sea. Not a single spark, even though everyone at this spot had been seeing plenty of bioluminescence for nights on end.
Disappointed, we slunk away.
Even more disappointment when we read on Facebook the next morning that about an hour after we had left, there were plenty of ‘flashing blue waves’ to be seen again...
A week later, in good spirits, we set off again. This time closer to home. The boat ramp at Brouwershaven, about forty kilometers south of Rotterdam. We arrived in pitch darkness. There was only one car. A camper that wanted to spend the night there illegally. We didn’t care. We dragged ourselves through the loose sand again, towards the waves. The dark waves. After half an hour, we had had enough and wanted to leave. At that moment, a car stopped. A woman walked to the water’s edge. She knelt down and started tossing water back and forth with her hands. Then she walked along the coast for a while, only to walk back to the car at the same time as us. “Was beautiful, wasn’t it?” she said. “Sea sparkle? Light of Night?”
We looked at her in surprise. “Sea sparkle? We didn’t see anything!”
“Oh yes there is. Come with me, and I’ll show you.”
Because of the nightly darkness, we felt like half-blind people dutifully following their guide dog. By the water’s edge, she walked over stranded algae. The stuff crunched under her feet and, damn if it isn’t true, blue sparks fired through the algae!
Okay. Not as spectacular as the photos we had seen on the internet, but the crunching under our feet and the sparks running in all directions through the algae made it extra special.
Bioluminescence can be crossed off our bucket list...
Okay. Someday we will go hunting again. And hopefully, then we will see the bioluminescence sparkling in the waves. No matter what, this experience was one never to be forgotten. Just like seeing fireflies for the first time. Magical!
This week’s Lyric Landscape could therefore only have one subject. An abstract depiction of a nighttime beach with glowing waves. The beach literally painted with sand. (Yeah, I love those tiny details…)
For a while, I wrote a Flash Fiction story every week. Because I have so many other projects running, I find that a bit too much. Hence the decision to write a “microflash” story (about 100 words) one week and a Flash Fiction of about 500 words the next.
I submitted the microflash story for this blog post to a contest. Unfortunately (for the readers of the magazine in question), my entry was not chosen. You understand by now why I think it is a great (tiny) story!
P.S. Like the Lyric Landscape? Check out the Artprints, Mugs, Tees etc. here!
(Or ask me about the original…)