tides - what's going on there?

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to beside the sea....
Me and Charlie have had a few days down at the beach, we've got a beach hut you know!
Well something happened that was confusing and a little bit annoying!
On Saturday morning I went down to the beach for a morning swim, whistling all the way with my towel round my neck, I was a happy as a platypus can be. I had a lovely swim in the bay. Said hello to my friend Sammy the seal. Great, what a way to start the day!
Well after my afternoon icecream I thought I might go for a swim before tea (cheese and pickle sandwiches of course, yum!) I went down to the same spot where I had left my towel in the morning but there was no sea!
Where had the sea gone!! Me and Charlie started to investigate.
Charlie said "Well one of the naughty crabs must have pulled the plug out, and all the water has drained away just like it does in the bath".
"No that's not right", said Steve, "it will be back later, the tide has just gone out"
I thought about this for a while. "Gone out, gone where? I know, it's the sea sloshing about isn't it? Like when me and Charlie are playing in the bath and we make the water slosh up to one end of the bath and then back to the other".
"So that's how the bathroom floor gets soaking wet, is it?" Asked Mandy
"So does that mean that it's sloshing up at the other side?"I wonder where the other side is?? I don't know where that is but it must be far away and they have got my lovely swimming water, which isn't very friendly.
Emergency over, we went back later and it was back again, phew! I'll have to find out where it goes so if I want a swim and the water is low where I am, I can dash over to where the water is high and go swimming there.
Got it sussed out now, you can't keep us platypusses down for long (still not sure whether it is playpusses or platypi)
See ya later alligators
Harold
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