Afterglow
I had come back from the Sahara. And soon, I took the TGV train for Bordeaux because I had heard that there
were good dunes in Aquitaine region. I still wanted sand although I had
just returned from "the world of sand".
I took a local train for an hour from Bordeaux. I arrived at the seaside
town named Arcachon. Casinos, most of hotels and restaurants were closed
because of off season. A pier looked so lonesome. However, I loved the
atmosphere, and fortunately, I could have a vacation house in low season
price.
The main subject, dunes, was 10 km from the town center. I went through
the forest and got off the bus at the entrance of dunes. Shortly after,
I saw the dunes behind the woods. Once I climbed up the sand hill, all
in my sight was just a series of dunes.
The left foot of dunes deeply fell into the forest and to the right into
the sea. Environment which surrounds dunes was completely different from
the Sahara. I got totally different impressions between them.
Good and bad weather came every other day. Choosing the good weather, I
visited to the dunes. Sand was tight after the rain and had many marks
of stream. Strong wind from the ocean was so cold. It hardly believed that
I had been walking on the deadly heated dunes in Mauritania just few days ago. I took shutters on the dunes. There were no sound but
the wind. I spoke some words like a monologue. The voice wasn't echoed
at all, and absorbed into the gap of sand grains in a moment.
The sky was covered with gray clouds and I saw glow light off shore of
the ocean. It looked like an after glow behind the season.
On the day, I knew the winter came on the dune. It's a long and wet winter
of Europe.
Nov. 2005
Today's piece
"Afterglow behind the season" Arcachon, France 1999
I walked on the edge of desert |