The morning started earlier than I had hoped, after a late New Year’s Eve party the night before. Seoras wanted to go surfing, and I decided a great way to start the year would be a run on the beach at the same time.

After eventually getting up, dressed and leaving the house, we headed for Southbroom beach. It was an overcast day and we parked with a view of the ocean. There were a few local surfers who’d already finished their morning surf and were watching the ocean - we had a bit of a chat with them. They warned the waves were big and advised that the swim out from the beach was not possible, and the only way to backline was on the rocks off the point in front of the tidal pool, otherwise you face the risk of becoming exhausted and being washed back to the beach. Seoras felt he could manage it from the beach as the lagoon had formed a sand bank which ran out adjacent to the wave pool, and he had managed to get out the previous two days. It was high tide and from where we parked we had to cross the Mbizane river mouth to get to the beach before I could start my run. Seoras was eager to get into the sea but knew he needed to help me cross the river mouth. So we headed down towards the river and the beach. Crossing the river wasn’t as difficult as expected, when you find a more shallow area to cross, however the water still came up to about mid to top thigh height.

Once on the beach Seoras headed into the ocean and I sat and watched the waves for a bit before putting on my running shoes and preparing to run. As I started running, I noticed a surfboard washed up onto the beach which looked familiar. By this stage I completely forgotten what Seoras was wearing and looked out to sea but couldn’t see him and assumed he must be at the back-line surfing already. There were two swimmers close to the shore and I assumed the board was one of theirs.

It was a tough run and hotter than expected. During that run I learnt running on the beach is very difficult – not for sissies – and if you are going to run on the beach, run at low tide when the sea has compacted the sand making it a harder surface to run on, and therefore an easier run.

It’s a beautiful scenic run from Southbroom to Ramsgate along various beaches, paths in dunes and up and over rocks. On one of the little beaches I had to pause and walk around fisherman to avoid their fishing lines. There was a lot of seaweed debris and shells around them and I took a slow look at what was on the beach… And found a cowrie! I have never found a cowrie on a South African beach, so for me this is very rare and special. In my family cowries have always been a sign of good luck, and now more so, luck for the year to come.

As it was New Year’s Eve the night before, my gut kept telling me not to run on the more secluded dune paths, and rather to climb over rocks where there were also areas one could walk.

When I reached the final turnaround beach, I climbed over some rocks and looked towards the dunes, where I noticed a homeless man waking up from his bed in the dunes on New Year’s Day. I didn’t want any confrontation and didn’t know what mental state he would be in, so I ran a little faster for this section. A little further was the turnaround point and when I passed the homeless man’s spot on my return I looked up and saw him starkers, squatting between two large rocks. There was a reason why my gut was telling me to avoid that area and I’m glad I had trusted it! This got me thinking, or trying not to think too hard about some of the things I had already passed on my run. A side note – this turnaround beach is know as Billy’s beach. I wondered if that was Billy I’d seen squatting…

I slowly made my way back to Southbroom and had given up on completely running – it had become a run-walk-scramble of a morning exercise session. I got to the beach and found Seoras out of the waves (which was quite a surprise) along with Ian, Duncan and Jana who had come to have a swim with us before breakfast.

It’s turns out the surfboard I’d seen on the beach before I started my run was Seoras’ and he’d been completely dumped by a wave in trying to get to the backline and had his surfboard leash break before I even started running. He hadn’t caught any waves while I’d been running and was very upset with this surfing start to his year. The other surfers we chatted to were right, it was very difficult to get out to the back line from the beach and Seoras was extremely disappointed as the waves were 5-7 foot and running the length of the beach.

I had a little swim with the others, we said our quick goodbyes to have a cup of coffee (which was waiting in the boot of the car) and would meet everyone back at the house in Ramsgate for New Year’s Day brunch.

The tide was now going out and crossing the river mouth was a lot more difficult. The current was strong, and the river was about waist height to cross. At the car we poured and enjoyed our coffee on the low wall and grassy banks overlooking Southbroom beach and the sea. We were sitting right next to the car and I felt quite stupid locking the car every time I stepped away from it, even though we were half a metre away, but quickly disregarded this thought.

Time was marching on and as much as Seoras wanted to try surf again we needed to get back for New Year’s Day brunch, and didn’t want to be the ones holding everyone’s hungry stomachs up at the house. For peace of mind, we walked to the point where the surfers jump off the rocks to get to the back line, to see how it’s done and then got into the car and went back to the house.

After a quick shower we joined the rest of the team for Bloody Mary cocktails followed by a delicious brunch. There was much hilarity during cocktail hour as I had been tasked to buy the Tabasco. In the shop there had been green or red Tabasco. Mild or Hot. I knew I wouldn’t be forgiven if I got the mild stuff, so got the red bottle. Turns out I got the extra hot Tabasco and was just as much in the dog box. Now I know.

After breakfast we started to relax, find a book and just chill for a bit the day. I was ready for a nap and Seoras started to realise he didn’t know where his cell phone was. I tried calling it a few times and it rang and rang but we couldn’t find it. We also couldn’t remember if it was still on silent from the night before, or if we would hear it. Seoras checked the car, the bedroom, the lounge, the garden, the kitchen, the outdoor shower where one showers after having been to the beach. Everywhere. No luck.

Earlier in the year for Seoras’ birthday I had given him three Tiles. These Tiles are small square devices about the size of the watch face (or smaller) and they link to your phone. One for the wallet, one for keys and a spare. We checked the tile app on my phone (when eventually figuring out the login details and password) and the phone had last registered on the app two days previously in the house in Ramsgate. Seoras had used his phone that morning so we knew this was wrong. The app and tiles are rather temperamental, and as techno savvy as I feel I am, we just can’t seem to figure them out.

We came to the conclusion that the phone must be back at Southbroom beach, and the fact that it was still ringing meant it had not been stolen (as then it would’ve been turned off), so we would go to Southbroom and see if we could find it. We got to the beach and asked car guards, lifeguards and the surf shop manager if anything had been handed in. No luck. We searched the areas where we had been and looked where we parked but to no avail.

We drove back to the house in Ramsgate feeling a little disappointed. At the house Seoras remembered he had a signed up for Samsung’s locate your phone service. He hot spotted his laptop off my phone and took a little while but got into his profile. The website said the phone was on somewhere Southbroom beach and had been updated a few minutes earlier. With this new information four of us, Ian, Duncan, Seoras and myself jumped in the car and headed back to Southbroom.

While en route to Southbroom we discovered Seoras’ phone only had 4% battery left, and that there is an option to call the phone from the website and make it ring for one minute on maximum volume even if it is on silent or vibrate only. Additionally, there was an option to extend the battery life by four hours which we immediately selected. Amazing! So even though the phone was at 4% the battery life had been boosted by a little bit to help our search.

The problem with Samsung’s find my device map is that it shows a very simple map and does not show you where you are in relation to the device. From what we could tell it looked like the phone was around the rocks where we had crossed the river mouth. I really didn’t think Seoras had had his phone with him when we crossed the river, but thought maybe it had been in a pocket by mistake and fallen out.

The four of us with laptop and cell phone hotspot (also with Samsung’s website open) climbed on the rocks looking underneath them and around them and looking very conspicuous. We had many onlookers watching us curiously. At this point we started pressing the ring at maximum volume button but could not hear anything. What we did not anticipate is how noisy the sea is. We actually thought even if the phone was ringing, we wouldn’t been able to hear it. But we kept trying knowing the cell phone was on the beach. All the while the battery was slowly running down..

I kept saying the phone looked like it had washed up in the next little bay along the river into the lagoon, and was not quite at the rocky area where we had crossed the river mouth. But when we thought about this, I couldn’t understand how the phone would still work if it had washed along the river into the rocks. Surely it would be off and would have water damage if it had washed into another little bay. Seoras’ previous phone had been waterproof, so not such a far-off thought, anyway.

New Year’s Day at Southbroom beach - searching for a needle in a haystack

We explored a little further around some of the other places that we been earlier that day. We got to the lifeguard look out point where we met the head lifeguard. At this moment a local seller approached us and asked why we had been pointing at him, if we are accusing him of stealing we must tell him directly. We had not noticed this man before at all. His shop or goods were located quite close to the rocks where we crossed the river, and we had merely looked at people but did not make any accusations, therefore his aggression was not justified and the lifeguard manager had realised this. Seoras and I thought this aggression was perhaps an admission of guilt, but the lifeguard manager helped and told him we were just looking for something we had lost and it had nothing to do with him, we didn’t think he’d stolen it.

The lifeguard manager then told us to come ring the phone from within the lifeguard room. This would test the honesty of his staff (the other lifeguards). We got into the room told the lifeguards what we were doing – no one admitted to have seen the phone so I pushed dial. At this exact moment one of the lifeguards’ phone started ringing. He couldn’t believe it and he gasped in fright. It was not Seoras’ phone, it was an old beat-up Nokia looking rather worse for wear, but it caused the lifeguard to almost have a heart attack. It was a good comic moment under the circumstances. We had a little chuckle at the coincidence (not him) and continued to the next place for searching.

We returned to the rocks (near the river mouth) and noticed a path that leads into the shrubby dune area. There had been a New Year’s Eve party the night before and the marquee was still up. The party portaloo ablution area was just near the rocks. There were security or cleaners for the party around this area and we asked them about the phone, but they had not heard or seen anything.

We pushed the ring at max volume button again and with that the phone battery died. This felt like the last straw as we could no longer ring the phone and see it location.

I said to Seoras let’s go around and look at the little bay I mentioned earlier, just to see, but without being able to see the phone location the chances were next to nothing. One last look before we have to give up.. We wandered through the portaloos which were absolutely foul and included a man cleaning his cooking pots or something on the ground near them. It stank. I tried not to breathe in too much. It wasn’t just the loos and the smell, the ground was muddy and wet from rain, and well we can only imagine what else.

We climbed down the hill to the lagoon and along to the rocks in this little beachy bay. Seoras was still carrying his laptop, and it started drizzling. I keep thinking please don’t let the laptop go now too. We did a little searching on the rocks but gave up feeling very deflated.

We climbed back up the little hill. Back across the muddy grass towards and through the portaloos. I was concentrating as hard as possible on not breathing. Halfway through the portaloo area Seoras stops and says what’s that, there under the leaves? He scrambled between two loos to the leafy area behind them. There, under a very very leafy area, he found his phone! He quickly pocketed it and told me to start walking in the opposite direction with a big grin on his face. We didn’t want to walk into anyone and cause any conflict of whose phone it was, where it was found et cetera et cetera.

I sent a message to Duncan saying ‘found. go to car’ and we rushed back to car. Duncan was still searching on the rocks and Ian wondering around the parking lot looking for the phone. They couldn’t believe it. And nor could we. What a day it had been. We headed back home for a glass of bubbles to celebrate the New Year and a bit of luck (and to sterilise the phone).

The fact that the phone had been on the whole time is something we couldn’t understand. We think possibly the security or cleaning staff from the party, or even the vendor who was so rude about being accused of stealing had picked it up or taken it out the boot of the car while we were changing and chatting with the local surfers at 8 am. It had to be someone who had to be there i.e. they were doing a job and could not leave the area and we think this was our saving grace.

Finding a cowrie, to me is a sign of good luck. Finding the phone with a battery that has died is something else. I think 2020 will be a good year.