WHILE T&T is the land of calypso and steelband there are still hundreds of Trinis who flee Carnival celebrations, content to laze the coming weekend away until Ash Wednesday, basking in sun, sea and sand.
And the expansive Salybia Beach, at the end of Galera Road, Toco is the favourite stomping ground for the hundreds of campers who shy away from experiencing the hurly burly bacchanal of Carnival with its wine, women and song.
The beach is private property, part of the Wharton Estate, but the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation nevertheless seeks to put everything in place to welcome the hardy campers who set up makeshift shelters that accommodate family members from far and wide, sometimes the only occasion for the year when they meet.
The corporation’s front man over the past ten to 15 years that the camping exercise has been taking place, and growing with each occasion, is Toco Fishing Pond electoral district representative, Councillor Martin Terry Rondon.
He told TnT Mirror that he wants the campers to be comfortable, enjoy themselves as if they were in their homes and, most of all, bathe safely when they venture into the sea.
In all more than 5,000 people are normally camped at Toco over the weekend, with a couple hundred more around the renovated lighthouse.
While the Carnival bands are absent from the beach, all the other ingredients of the national festival are normally very much present: loud music, raucous limes and liquor flowing like water.
On Monday, a team from the corporation trimmed trees at the beach, moving the debris away, and workmen could be seen carrying out the orders of pubic health inspectors to ensure that all food and drink stalls on the beach had a concrete floor.
Two early-bird families of campers had already set up their tents, and the discussion between Rondon and his crew was when this week should they offload the 14 portable toilets that would be made available for the campers’ comfort, despite there being a fixed toilet facility at the beach.
It was learnt that the practice is for long-standing campers who make the trek to Toco each Carnival to “hog” a portable toilet within their camp for their sole use, bold-facedly depriving other holiday makers of the privilege.
Rondon said the Grande municipal police under Inspector Sewak Baran would be asked to monitor the toilets this year to prevent this practice.
Since early last year Toco has had lifeguards patrol the beach and on behalf of his colleagues, lifeguard Henry Copeland requested that Rondon detail a toilet specifically for their use.
Copeland also urged that campers be ordered to keep their music boxes away from the beach to ensure that lifeguards were able to hear distress calls from bathers.
“It is basic commonsense for campers to know that, but it does not always work out in practice,” Copeland observed.
