What a Croc! The strange fairytale story of a lost and found clog on the Caithness coast
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When a wild swimmer at Staxigoe saw her Croc clog wash out of the bay she gave up hope of ever seeing it again – the Caithness tides can throw up some unusual items, she soon learned though.
Kait Farmer from Bilbster was out with her wild swimming group called the Staxigoe Selkies one Thursday afternoon when a freak wave came into the harbour and swept her trendy turquoise footwear from the slipway where she had left them.
"I'm such a meanie that I always wear my Crocs down the slip[way] so I don't wear a hole in my swim socks – I left them on the slip and the sea stole them away," said Kait.
"One came into the harbour and the other went out into the bay. We could see it with binoculars but we don't go way out past the rocks." Kait and her swimming group all agreed that the Croc had gone too far for them to chance swimming out to retrieve it and it was given up for lost. The sea was also quite choppy after a recent storm.
"I didn't throw away the one I had as I thought I might put a wee plant in it or something. I'd had them since around 2014 and they had served me well."
The waters around that area can be fierce and all agreed that the plastic clog was gone forever and would probably become an unfortunate addition to the mass of plastic polluting the planet's oceans. But the Selkies had not fully taken on board the sterling work of the Caithness Beach Cleans eco group that picks up plastic and other waste from the county's coastline.
There are group members throughout Caithness who regularly post photos along with weights of material uplifted along with location details. Some members will go out as part of a group while others do it alone. Wick High School teacher Chris Aitken is one such coastal cleaner and was picking up an assortment of weird and wonderful debris from the rocks below the ruins of Keiss castle then sharing the images on his Facebook feed.
"I like finding unusual things and take pictures of the junk I find on my walks along the shore at Keiss," said Chris. Apart from an ornamental plastic goose there were three items that he combined into a composite image which included a Croc shoe, a discarded vape and a battered looking orange. He wrote a pun beside it: "My favourite food.. Croc-Lit-Orange".
Chris was ready to send all the items for recycling but after his post went up someone alerted Kait to it and thought it could well be her lost Croc.
"I messaged Chris in the off-chance it was my Croc and he took it into the school where my husband works as well," she said. It was a Cinderella moment for Kait when she was reunited with the elusive clog which, like the fairy tale, turned out to be a perfect fit.
"I am delighted to be able to reunite the Croc with its owner rather than putting it to landfill," said Chris. Kait was equally delighted and amazed that the clog had been discovered within just three days of it being lost. It had apparently drifted several miles around Noss Head before floating into Sinclair's Bay where it landed on the shoreline at Keiss castle.
Retired headteacher Pat Ramsay is part of the Staxigoe Selkies swimming group as well and was one of those watching helplessly as the Croc had drifted away on that Thursday afternoon. "We saw some seals out there as it went out the harbour and laughed that they'd end up balancing it on their noses.
"We never thought it would go out with the tide and back in with the tide a couple of days later. It's lovely now that she's got it back."
A paddle was also recently lost at Scrabster and its owner, Maranda Thomson, was reunited with it after information was posted to her from a Caithness Beach Cleans group member.
The paper covered a story about a different type of 'croc' in 2020 when a plastic crocodile caused a few scares after being seen in Wick river.
Kait said she wants to promote Staxigoe Selkies along with another "very active" wild swimming group called KW1 Swimmers.
All interested in joining these wild swimming groups can find out more details by checking their pages on Facebook.
