Just one more person from around the world!

It’s a very common sight on Algarve beaches, as the tide turns, for people to gather on the beach, digging a heel into the wet sand in a sort of shuffle dance. A lot of scuffling often produces enough molluscs to fill a plastic bottle for a lunch time snack, but there are guys for whom this is a serious business. They stand in the water, often waist deep, in whatever the weather gods throw at them. Treading backwards, they drag the net, hour on hour, for an often paltry reward of shellfish. I’m told it pays well, but I can think of easier ways to make a living. That certainly applies to Cady’s Just One Person from Around the World this week. She tells of an awesome level of commitment.

75 comments

  1. Just echoing the previous comments about the difficulty of the work but yes, it’s free and good for him/them for working rather than sitting around expecting someone else to take care of him/them! Getting harder and harder to find that attitude these days.

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  4. Great shot and interesting to read about the ‘shuffle’ to disturb the shellfish. I’m not a big fan of cockles etc. and neither is my stomach, so I tend to steer clear! This is indeed a tough way to make a living but maybe he’s grateful that the demand is there so that he has a way of making that living?

    I spotted your comment to Margaret that next week will be the last Monday Walk for a while, so I’ll try to find a good one for you 🙂

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    1. As I said to LolaWi, not too many choices if you’re born here and don’t want to work as a waiter, or not clever enough for a bank or estate agency.
      Thanks, Sarah. I will make an announcement on 6 Word Saturday but not everyone will see it. 🤗💕

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  9. Dear Jo,
    we stayed at the Algarve for quite a while coming back from Africa. It was during the autumn months and early winter. We met a lot of surfers there and these diggers as well.
    In former times people could live on getting shellfish and lugworms on our coast as well. But nowadays hardly anybody does it any more. There are easier ways to make a living.
    Thanks for sharing
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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    1. Many easier ways, but this is free, Klaus. Though I believe you need a license to do it. We saw the maritime police checking a few weeks ago. We don’t know how lucky we are, do we? 🤔💕
      Love to the ladies 💕💕💕

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      1. Dear Jo,
        indeed, we are.
        Here the fisherman make their money mainly with lobster and partly with crab and mussels. But you need a boat to catch lobster and crab.
        With lots of love from us all from the sunny sea
        The Fab Four of Cley
        🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  11. Not all of my comments are appearing on your site, Jo. I haven’t figured out yet why I have to sign in for every blog I ‘like’ or ‘comment on’ but I do it for those I especially like. I returned to yours to check something in the picture and see my comment isn’t here, so having another go. Just to say it’s a great capture – and I did ramble on a bit about the hard life of these land-fishermen. Now I have to hit the W button at the bottom, wait for it to bring up my details, click on Sign-In (I am signed in already), then wait again while it clicks away and prints my comment, THEN I have to click Post Comment again! And still it doesn’t always work! I have to do the same to put a ‘Like’ there as well, they don’t work on the same click, can you believe it? WP suggests I change back to Google Chrome from Edge (which came with Win 10 and which I want to try to get away from Google Ads). I’ll look back to see if this one goes up.

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    1. Yes, you succeeded, thanks Mari, but it really shouldn’t be such hard work. I do remember having similar problems in the past and it’s very discouraging. 🤔💕
      No way I could do this for a living and I don’t even like the product. 😕💕

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  12. Love the photo Jo.
    The isolation of a long distance fisher lol A bit of a shuffle, a bit of a suction pump and shellfish drop into the basket.
    A small amount of shellfish to feed your family would make it worthwhile. I don’t eat shellfish as they are filter feeders gathering the muck from the sea and could contain anything now-a-days. Micro plastics are the main worry.

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  14. I wonder what he is harvesting? Cockles, whelks? I have seen people doing this in Cape Town,but not here. You need a licence to take seaweed from a beach here!
    Great shot, has a feeling of isolation.

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    1. A variety of cockles, I think. I don’t like the things but you can find them in many of the local restaurants. Or sitting in a bucket outside, waiting… Ugh!
      It was that wild day not so long ago, but still they were out there up to their chests 😦 Still staying good for you?

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      1. Mmm… I am not keen on cockles or whelks. They remind me of northern seaside towns where you bought them in paper cones sprinkled with vinegar. Sun out again now, after a cloudy start.

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      2. It’s a moody one here after a fabulous week. Friends newly arrived from Bognor Regis will be tearing their hair out 🙂 🙂 Slaves to the weather. We’re waiting about for news as she’s been moved to the level below intensive care. Whatever that is, it’s frightening!

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  15. Jo, you caught a beautiful scene of the sea and a man skilfully and concentrated providing food for his family.
    As you know these type of seafoods are highly praised in restaurants although the fisherman get a very small part.
    Personally I don’t eat them or oysters…..

    Each place has their tradition and knowledge.

    miriam

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  16. Reminds me of when we were in South Africa, my partner’s cousin A took him ‘paddling’ for mussels in the shallow water – same sort of shuffle dance but with flat feet. They filled two child’s buckets but none of us like shellfish so they were put back straight away – A only really took him just to experience a bit of something different 🙂

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      1. Not my family, my ex partner’s. Sadly I’ve lost touch with them since he and I split up but I’d love to go back there some day and repeat the experiences I had then.

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  17. You know, I’ve only ever seen seagulls do that and am not sure of their success. The occasional fisherperson might dig for cockles, but rarely, as I think the limit is very tiny. To have to do this for your wage would be back breaking.

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  20. I think we’ve been protected from knowing just how hard some people have to work to produce even very modest returns. It beats scavenging through rubbish to find worthwhile pickings. Happy Thursday! I’m off to the Dales for the first time in I don’t know how long. Maybe for a Monday Walk?

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