Next time I visit Djerba I will stay at the port town of Houmt Souq rather than the Zona Touristique. But for five days over winter, the tourist zone was a pleasant place to start finding out about this desert island. I always thought that a desert island was uninhabited but in fact the designation refers to it's geology. Djerba is a sand island and lives by its relationship to the sea.
On the third day, I found my way to the beach in the late afternoon. In the tourist zone, the beach has been largely taken over by the hotels but in the winter only a few people were out walking, mostly women of a certain age on their own! I decided I was there for the exercise and walked fast for 45 minutes before turning. By this time, the sun was low and there were some clouds around. Fishermen with rods worked the incoming tide.
The sky out to sea was tinged with lilacs.
Two rowing boats were out but it wasn't until I got closer that I realised that they were using a net and seemed to be very excited.
I took a series of shots as I got closer and then stopped to watch.
At first there are two men in each boat and one in the water. They seem to be struggling to circle the net, close the escape and bring the net in.
Another man got into the water. It looked like they had something big.
Another one in the water and now one boat is drifting. With three in the water they are able to close the escape and hold the net whilst the manned boat rows over to retrieve the drifting boat.
Now with two manned boats and three in the water they can start moving the net towards the shore. The three in the water focus on keeping the net closed whilst the men on the boats take in the slack at each end. Everyone gradually works towards the beach.
The men in the water keep folding the net over to prevent whatever is in there from escaping and the rowers help by pulling closer and closer to shore.
But whatever they've caught, it's too heavy to pull the net out onto the beach, so they hold it at the water's edge whilst one of them runs to the fisher's huts to get boxes.
It's a huge shoal of small fry. They don't have enough boxes.
The group of watchers has grown. They fill three boxes and five men run with them across the sand dunes to what must be a refrigerated truck. They return quickly with empty trays and the loading starts again.
By this time, my camera battery was getting low and the sun was setting so I left a happy bunch of men on the beach and wandered back to tourist land. Since then, I've been thinking about the joy of collaborative achievement. When a group of people are confident in their ability and know what their purpose is, they can achieve anything!
