How’s the weather?
I recently arrived back from a trip to my home town on the strand coast of South Africa. It had been a while since I had seen my mates and we all knew that the majority of the month to follow would be consumed by fishing. It is a passion of mine which I share with a few of my closest buddies.
We hit it hard. I would wake up around 6AM every morining to check the tides and conditions online, and off we would go. We were die hard’s because it actually wouldn’t matter what the weather would say, because we would be fishing most days anyway. Often we would take a trip down the coastline to a good friend of ours, Grant, who lives in a small coastal town called Gansbaai. It is actually famous for being an all year round Great White Shark haven, with the highest breeding records in history. Grant is a skipper on one of the cage diving boats that goes out to seal island where the shark activity is everyday. However, we never went there for cage diving, we went there to catch fish.
One trip we had to Gansbaai came with shocking weather. The black south easter was howling so hard that we couldn’t get out of the car, let alone trying to fish. We ended up going to the local bar during the storm where we were introduced to a very interesting fella. A wise old man who had been living in the tiny fishing village for over 60 years. We quickly ended up conversing over fishing of course.
The information that was laid upon us by this man was interesting to say the least. He began telling us how the animals will tell you all the weather information you will ever need. He said that you must always observe the ants first. After a brief silence he continued. He said that when the ants are scattering around and moving nervously, trying to reach higher ground, they are actually telling us that it is going to rain. He explained how ants are able to sense the slightest change in barometric pressure and scatter when the rain cames. As if that was not enough, he told us how sea gulls are the same in the way they act. He said that when a seagull is on land and close to the shore the weather will be good, but if they are on the water and bathing themselves, the rain will pour the next day.
After the holiday trip in Gansbaai we were still hesitant to believe the words that this man had told us.It was not until recently that I experienced it with my own eyes. I saw the ants doing the crazy dance so I decided to drive to the beach to see it for myself. The seagulls were on the water and bathing themselves. The next day was a massive storm with Gail force winds and rainfall for two days. I was amazed.
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