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A Common Need To Shelter

Brigitta Summers

A few years ago I went to Bronte Beach on a November afternoon that was threatening a storm. The weather hadn’t yet turned to rain but the wind was up and the main beach had been closed for swimming. At the southern end of the beach there is a sheltered area where the waves break on the rocks and wash calmly onto the sand. I was wading about in this pool when a man near me started pointing at something under the water. Squinting through the distortions of the surface, I could see an octopus. It was dark reddish brown and with its knobbly head was perfectly camouflaged against the rocks that lay about. I googled it later and I think it was a Common Sydney Octopus. I guessed it had also come to the sheltered pool to escape the rough waves. It struck me that we, humans and octopus, had this shared need to take shelter against the storm, and I felt companionship with the octopus there in the calm pool. I have always remembered seeing the octopus, and whenever I go back to Bronte I always hope to see one again but I never have.