Searching for Driftwood

Sunny Australia 

I'm not sure which came first - the decision to go hunting for driftwood or the decision to go walking in the rain.  I have a feeling it was the latter.  For reasons unknown, on a wet and blustery Saturday morning, Bear Z, Rabby and myself decided to go for a walk on the beach.  Mystical Roo - by far the most sensible member of the group - opted out of this adventure.  The rest of us waterproofed ourselves up and headed out sans umbrella.  There's something strangely entertaining about walking in stormy weather.  The wind was howling, the rain was hammering down and the sea was in a frenzy.  It was brown from where all the sand had been churned up and the waves were chopping and changing all over the place.  Still, there were body boarders out in the surf.  There were lifeguards holed up in the surf club.  There were land dwelling sharks lurking behind rocks.  And there was the three of us ambling across the sand not looking at all like tourists.  I had my trusty leopard print wellingtons on so how could I possibly be mistaken for a tourist.  There was a huge line of dead blue bottles washed up along the shore and - randomly - a number of tennis balls.  They looked to be brand new so we did what any other storm wanderer would do.  We snaffled them.  Better snaffle them then have them float out to sea.  It may have been the snaffling of tennis balls that led to the attempted snaffling of driftwood.  We decided that a bit of driftwood would make an excellent Christmas card displayer.  That's if I get any Christmas cards of course.  Once I had a hold of this idea I insisted that we find driftwood.  But storm or no there wasn't a whole lot of driftwood to be found.  We headed towards where the "stream" meets the sea to see if any had washed up on shore.  The "stream" had turned into a full flowing river and was cutting away nice chunks of sand.  But yes, there was driftwood.  And it was drifting down stream.  There was also a body boarder.  He too was drifting down stream.  And into the sea.  He seemed pleased to have an audience.  We spotted a rather sizeable bit of driftwood making its way towards us but it went straight out to sea.  The waves however, were accommodating and sent that sizeable bit of driftwood straight back towards shore.  But it disappeared back into the river.  At one point it got lodged in a bit of sand and Rabby made a dash for it.  He only just dragged it back to shore before a wave swept in.  That could have been one wet Rabby.  Unfortunately it turned out to be a really burnt bit of driftwood.  Not the driftwood I had in mind.  We left the beach soggy but up by two tennis balls.  Alas there was no appropriate driftwood to be found.  The search for the driftwood continues.