Just this morning, I took a stroll to my local swimming baths: the place I’ve chalked up about six thousand kilometres of freestyle in the past thirty years.
I can’t claim surprise at what I found; after all, yesterday’s rain pelted down hard on our rooftop, and we’re less than two kilometres away.
It was, in a word, disgusting. Sad to say, I’ve seen it even worse, but….
Instead of that strangely indescribable colour of clean river water, I saw dense, brownish stuff, splattered with debris.
The ‘Baths Closed Due to Health Risk’ sign was still in force, and to my knowledge, this is for a record period. Our Club last raced here in late February: every subsequent meeting had to be cancelled. What a disaster for our morale!
When will it ever return to normal? Will we swimmers ever think of it in the same way as B. F.: Before Flood?
Yes, it all went awry following the torrential rains that saw dams overflow! To think, it’s just a few years back that water restrictions were in force, and a desalination plant was constructed!
Clearly, things haven’t changed too much from the days of poet Dorothea Mackellar, who wrote of ‘droughts and flooding rains’ in our country, Australia.
Copyright ©
margaret lynette sharp 