It’s been raining for the past few days.  It’s the sort of rain that reminds me of Ireland, a light rain that’s on and off for most of the day.  Soon the rainy season will begin and that won’t be so pleasant as the rain will be torrential.  I have been meaning to get back into my exercise routine but I don’t feel like going back to the gym just yet.  Since the weather is pleasant I decided to walk in the rain instead.  I live beside a river with an excellent walking route that I’ve walked many times.  But yesterday for the first time I saw a crab.

I was walking close to the water when something skittered across the path.  I was alarmed, as I thought it was a giant insect, but then I realised it was a crab. I have seen crabs before in other places, but not that often.  I tried to get closer to the crab, but I think I scared it more than it scared me, and it ran away into the long grass.  When I got closer to the grass I realised that it was crawling with crabs.  There were hundreds of them all frantically moving around.  I tried to take pictures but they really do move quickly.

At first I was fascinated but then they began to look more like insects with very sharp claws.  The more I looked at them the more I thought of horror stories (I shouldn’t be allowed to read Stephen King and Dean Koontz).  They looked creepy with their strange eyes on stalks and the thought of them getting close to me was making me feel odd so I continued with my walk and moved a bit further away from the river bank.

I told Marty about them, so maybe I’ll be brave and go back at the weekend so that he can see the crabs and protect me – from the madness in my head.