Moonlight meander on a Garden Route beach
Join one of marine biologist Judy Dixon’s Swartvlei tours and experience the wonder of sea-life at night
“It’s just piddle,” Judy Dixon says when it starts to rain on us at the Swartvlei beach (Sedgefield) on our way to Gericke’s Point — instantly putting paid to my feeble attitude towards wandering around sand and rocks in the dark and getting wet nogal.
I am on the famous Judy Dixon moonlight meander excursion, something that has been on my bucket list for years since I came to live on the Garden Route ... and it turns out to be even more exciting than I imagined — after a while nobody even notices the drizzle.
After only minutes, anybody like me who thought their feet wouldn’t get wet is now wearing soaked takkies though there are always those prepared kind of people who have worn crocs (God forbid) or at least water bootees.
On this trip, we even get an extra thrill when Judy gets an octopus locked onto her foot which needs to be extricated quickly before that formidable beak goes into her toe.
Considering it’s this same appendage that can break open shells, it’s obvious Dixon is relieved when it is prised off.
Dixon is a highly qualified marine biologist, botanist, biochemist and accredited field guide and she has been doing these night-time meanders for 28 years.
She did a degree in zoology at the University of Cape Town and says she had a lecturer who kindled her love of the marine environment.
Her ethos, she tells me, is “aware people care”, which is why she teaches people about sea creatures and their environment.
Dixon almost succeeded in having the Swartvlei beach declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA).
Wessa approved, a memorandum of understanding was signed and then Covid-19 happened and it all came to a halt.
Dixon and her husband came to the Garden Route 31 years ago and they have a smallholding in Rondevlei.
Her moonlight meanders have gained fame on the Garden Route.
Just Google her trips and see the many reviews and comments from locals and overseas visitors.
She takes a group of up to 15 people every spring tide (new moon or full moon) when the tide is lowest so that she can show her guests the wonder of marine life in the intertidal zones.
Her trips are so popular that you need to book in advance.
I don’t think Dixon would mind me calling her a “Duracell bunny” because while she’s not a spring chicken, her energy is quite something.
A group of us met her on the beach at about 7pm and we were off nonstop at a cracking pace for the next three-and-a-bit hours.
Though I have walked the Swartvlei beach to Gericke’s Point beach many times, it is completely different at night.
The full moon that was supposed to have come out remains stubbornly hidden, and it’s not a starry night, so it’s especially dark.
After a while I work out that it feels a bit like night-diving ...
I lose my bearings because the familiar landmarks that are there in the daylight are hidden.
I don’t know this landscape at night, in fact it’s hard to even pinpoint how far we have walked down the beach.
Dixon is a natural raconteur as she shares her wealth of knowledge about all things marine.
She also has a devilish sense of humour and her passion for sea-life is evident.
Though she must have seen everything she shows us hundreds of times over the years, she is as eager and excited as a child in a toy shop.
This walk to Gericke’s Point and back is about 4km, and visitors are spellbound and lose all sense of time.
Dixon starts at the water’s edge and then we walk along the beach, stopping at rock formations, peek into tidal pools — and get lost in another world.
She starts with the plough snails that are nearly always to be found burrowing on this beach or eating a jellyfish or bluebottles and she tells us they can live for 25 years, which is mind-blowing considering this is just a tiny snail.
The little creatures are out in their hundreds of thousands and Dixon tells us that if we use the place where they are congregating, rather like a lifeguard who allocates safe swimming zones, we are in the right place to swim where there is least likely to be a dangerous current.
Dixon calls the frothy stuff that washes up on the beach with the waves “marine meringue” and says it is full of protein for sea creatures.
She doesn’t advise we eat it unless we are very hungry.
On our many visits to this beach we often see big jellyfish washed up.
Dixon explains that this version called the root mouth jellyfish does not sting.
She flips it over to show us the tentacles and “gonads” as she calls them and says they are hermaphrodites.
The reason for their bluish underbelly is that they need to camouflage themselves from prey in the water and so any creature looking up at them won’t see them because they are blue, but then they are transparent from an aerial view which is also a form of disguise.
Six years ago, here in her nature reserve, Dixon saw a red-banded jellyfish.
“It had a pretty purple skirt with dots.
“Now this creature stings and is poisonous.
“Even the plough snails moved away rather than devouring it.”
Since I was a child, I have been stamping on the “bubble” of bluebottles for the popping sound it makes, but I will think twice in future.
Dixon warns us not to stamp on them because they have a very long tentacle that can whip up and still sting if it’s wet.
Red bait, which I have only ever come across discarded by fishermen and rotting with a violent stench, is delicious to eat when it’s fresh, she tells us.
Dixon whips a crab out of one of the crevices in a rock pool, adeptly dodging the pincer and shows us how the male and female belly differ and how they can quite easily be identified.
It’s lovely to touch things in the rock pools, but a chiton shell leaves tiny almost invisible spines in your fingers that no tweezer or anything for that matter can remove.
You have to wait until the spines literally grow out of your skin.
“I wish children would touch them so they couldn’t use their phones for three weeks,” she says.
Dixon unveils four distinctive intertidal zones and all the creatures that colonise them.
Together we investigate a host of fauna and flora, the different kinds of anemones, worms, starfish, you name it.
She seems to know exactly what creatures inhabit each pond
What was a surprise even for her though was the octopus that reached right out of one of the pools and twined itself around her foot.
The guided night-time safari is magical, memorable and even seminal because it’s impossible to look into a rock pool again and not notice everything she has showed us.
It’s perfect for curious adults and children alike.
For the best experience, take a torch with a three-hour battery life, even better a headlamp, wear shoes that are made to get wet and take a warm jacket ... perhaps a raincoat if you don’t want to get wet because Dixon is not deterred by a shower.
To book a tour contact Judy Dixon on 072-390-6667 or email her on judyzdix@gmail.com