We had an amazing time, one of the most unique things about this place is it is so close to Miami yet so far away from
civilisation.
Once you are out there on the water you really felt quite isolated and alone in a peaceful and beautiful way.
The first hurdle of course was getting there by rental car, driven by moi who hasn't driven a car for 2 years never
mind the fact that I had to sit on the wrong side of car, drive on wrong side of road and drive through busy Miami
traffic! We stopped off at Walmart and loaded up on food and some camping gear we needed. We started off pretty
compact really from Bermuda with our 2 kayaks and camping gear and clothing all coming in without having to pay
extra weight.
We met up with some other ' folbot kayakers' at the campground that night and got the info we needed to make our
way around out there without getting lost! ( GPS points etc)
We started out toward Hells Bay, ( cos its hell to get in to and hell to get out of) Initially our waterway was very narrow
we had to duck and dive and wend our way through the mangroves, luckily they had markers at certain points so we
knew we were going the right way. A real amazing maze of twists and turns, causing our 4.5m kayaks to be put into all
sorts of maneuvers to stick to the right route and not end up stuck in the bushes! Occasionally we would come across
what I called ' alligator porches' where the alligators launched into the water. Given the narrowness and shallowness of
some of this mangrove wonderland I did wonder who's going to give way to who if we meet a large alligator out for his
morning swim, not much choice really but to leap in fright to top of mangrove tree and surrender until he finds a way
past!
We finally found our way to our first night camp, a Chickee (a decked platform sitting over the water) to camp on,
with sore shoulders and cold beer we recovered in style to a beautiful sunset over the bay, awesome. The next
morning we spend 2 hours trying to find our way out to our next destination, we saw dolphins, birds,alligators but no
entrance to the river we were looking for, finally found it and we had a hard days paddle to our next nights Chickee,
even more beautiful than the last except no cold beer tonight. We spend the next few days in this amazing place seeing
lots of wildlife, an occasional human in the distance and exited out onto the coast and spent the last 2 nights making
out way back to where we started camping on open white sand beaches, with only the pelicans for company and the
occasional dolphin drifting past. We covered a fair distance and kayaked 4-6 hours a day.
It was rather disappointing to be heading back to civilisation again after a week of pure peace, red wine and freeze
dried food. Alas the red wine being drunk and food down to minimum spurred us on to return.
So we pulled in to a place where we could unload the kayaks and load up the car, at the same spot a couple were
loading up their double kayak for a trip going to go back the way we had come.
Highlights:
Downfalls
civilisation.
Once you are out there on the water you really felt quite isolated and alone in a peaceful and beautiful way.
The first hurdle of course was getting there by rental car, driven by moi who hasn't driven a car for 2 years never
mind the fact that I had to sit on the wrong side of car, drive on wrong side of road and drive through busy Miami
traffic! We stopped off at Walmart and loaded up on food and some camping gear we needed. We started off pretty
compact really from Bermuda with our 2 kayaks and camping gear and clothing all coming in without having to pay
extra weight.
We met up with some other ' folbot kayakers' at the campground that night and got the info we needed to make our
way around out there without getting lost! ( GPS points etc)
We started out toward Hells Bay, ( cos its hell to get in to and hell to get out of) Initially our waterway was very narrow
we had to duck and dive and wend our way through the mangroves, luckily they had markers at certain points so we
knew we were going the right way. A real amazing maze of twists and turns, causing our 4.5m kayaks to be put into all
sorts of maneuvers to stick to the right route and not end up stuck in the bushes! Occasionally we would come across
what I called ' alligator porches' where the alligators launched into the water. Given the narrowness and shallowness of
some of this mangrove wonderland I did wonder who's going to give way to who if we meet a large alligator out for his
morning swim, not much choice really but to leap in fright to top of mangrove tree and surrender until he finds a way
past!
We finally found our way to our first night camp, a Chickee (a decked platform sitting over the water) to camp on,
with sore shoulders and cold beer we recovered in style to a beautiful sunset over the bay, awesome. The next
morning we spend 2 hours trying to find our way out to our next destination, we saw dolphins, birds,alligators but no
entrance to the river we were looking for, finally found it and we had a hard days paddle to our next nights Chickee,
even more beautiful than the last except no cold beer tonight. We spend the next few days in this amazing place seeing
lots of wildlife, an occasional human in the distance and exited out onto the coast and spent the last 2 nights making
out way back to where we started camping on open white sand beaches, with only the pelicans for company and the
occasional dolphin drifting past. We covered a fair distance and kayaked 4-6 hours a day.
It was rather disappointing to be heading back to civilisation again after a week of pure peace, red wine and freeze
dried food. Alas the red wine being drunk and food down to minimum spurred us on to return.
So we pulled in to a place where we could unload the kayaks and load up the car, at the same spot a couple were
loading up their double kayak for a trip going to go back the way we had come.
As we unloaded our slightly scratched muddy boats, worn and well loved camping gear, empty wine bottles etc
onto the bank, I did wonder, as they argued about how to get all their stuff into the hatches, of their shiny new
boats in matching sun protected clothing if they:
- had ever been kayaking before and knew what they were doing and
- bet they don't have as much fun as we did.
- cheers
D
Highlights:
- PEACE
Birdlife
Not being eaten by alligator despite Lee trying to occasionally annoy wildlife
Chickees had toilets!
Dinah being allowed map on day 3!
Beautiful sunrises
I now have abs and arms like madonna
The more we ate and drunk the lighter the load.
We only had 1 argument
Downfalls
- We didn't take a fishing rod, fish were jumping and numerous
No gorgeous eco-lodge spas to retreat to when going got tough
Lee never wrestled a Alligator despite me offering to do the dishes for a month! for the rights to a photo shoot.
No time for shopping
| ...in the words of the kiwi... |
| ...the Everglades... |
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