What it would be like to walk on water, impossible to know. Yet it would be nice to be able to run on the surface layer of the sea, like in science fiction movies where there are special boots that make you levitate and walk barefoot on the sea. Only imagination. But what if this is not so impossible? No need of going into science fiction, there is a walk called the “Moses’ trek” just because what happens seems to recall Moses’ biblical story escaping from Egypt.
“Moses’ trek”: where you can WALK across the WATERS
# The waters that separate
When escaping from Egypt, the Bible relates that Moses, to save himself and the Israelites, parted the Red Sea waters. In fact, when he stretched out his rod towards the sea, it’s parted creating a wall on the right and one on the left and the dried up in between. The Israeli’s managed to escape while the Egyptians chasing them were submerged by the waters, which closed again as soon as the Israeli were safe. Leaving aside the religious aspect, about the same thing happens with the road of the “Moses’ trek”. This strip of sand to walk along appears and disappears according to the tide, thus continuously separating and closing the waters.
# A walk between the land and the island
Where is this very special path located? It is in the Ballena (whale) National Marine Park in the small state of Alagoas, northeast of Brazil. The Park is a place worth visiting it covers 110 ha. of land and over 5.000 of ocean, here you are immersed in nature, and you can also find more than 85 endemic marine species typical of the area.
In addition to the beauty of nature, there is precisely the Moses’ trek. When we speak of a “trek”, we must not think of thousands of kilometers to be covered backpacking, but simply of a walk of about 15/20 minutes that joins the mainland to an island. A strip of land that at low tide separates the waters of the Ocean, a sort of sand bridge that at the same time is submerged by water as soon as the tide rises. Before crossing it, however, you must be sure to be able to go back on feet at low tide!
# Wonders of nature
Well, of course wonders of nature can’t end there. The strip of land of the Moses’ Trek, along with the island it reaches, create the shape of a whale tail. That’s why it’s called Playa Cola de Ballena (Whale Tail Beach). And if it’s not enough, hundreds of migrating humpback whales pass through here, getting together every year to reproduction and feeding.
At the Moses’ Trek there is a scientific explanation, of course. The strip of sand mentioned is a sandpit, aka a bar of sand, the result of sediment deposited by the waves between an offshore island and the mainland. What is fascinating is that this sandpit, like others, appears and disappears.
Continue reading: The INFINITY PATH: the new trekking walk overlooking the Ligurian Sea
LAURA LIONTI
(Original article by Beatrice Barazzetti)
