John Pennekamp State Park, Florida (Miles to Date: 12500)
Tuesday we picked up Laura from Miami airport. This was after a phone call at 3:00am from Laura at Heathrow saying they wouldn’t let her on the plane because she didn’t have a return ticket. Fortunately we had booked her a return ticket – Virgin Atlantic had not looked it up on their computer system. Thanks for the early call Mr Branson!!! Anyway when we got to the airport we waited and waited. Generally when Laura travels through airports she has assistance from the airport staff but for some reason this did not happen this time around but Laura being the experienced traveller she is managed to collect her bags and find her way through immigration and customs. Good for Laura!!
Not wanting to give Laura too much rest, today we went out to kayak on the mangrove swamp. Jack partnered with Laura, Karen with Emily and Mark on his own (lucky old him – alone time!!!) We passed through the narrow channels between the mangroves, luckily no alligators or crocodiles live around this area, but there were sure to be snakes around so we didn’t want to get into the water. After an hour or so we just about done in – we are not getting too much exercise.
This afternoon we took advantage of the calm weather conditions out at sea – the waves being less than 1 foot high, and went out on a snorkel tour of the reef. The main reef areas are a few miles out at sea – but the reef is in shallow
waters, only being 7 or 8 feet down even at low tide. The boat dropped us about 40 feet from the reef and we all snorkelled out in the clear waters. The sea life was stunning with large schools of brightly coloured fish swimming in and amongst the polyps of the coral. There is a huge variety of coral and fish to see. Laura who had not really snorkelled tried her best and got to see some of the fish. We were really lucky to see several barracuda and sharks. Karen and Jack got within a few feet of a 6 foot Bull Shark – which are can be deadly, but fortunately the group of us were large enough to scare them away. Mark also got to swim close-up to a sting ray. The only real danger in the water were jellyfish, not so much the plate sized moon jellyfish but the smaller but prolifically tentacled Portuguese Man-of-War which bear a very nasty sting. Karen and Emily saw the only one of this type and we all stayed well clear. This was an absolutely marvellous experience which we’d love to be able to repeat sometime during this time trip.
Tuesday we picked up Laura from Miami airport. This was after a phone call at 3:00am from Laura at Heathrow saying they wouldn’t let her on the plane because she didn’t have a return ticket. Fortunately we had booked her a return ticket – Virgin Atlantic had not looked it up on their computer system. Thanks for the early call Mr Branson!!! Anyway when we got to the airport we waited and waited. Generally when Laura travels through airports she has assistance from the airport staff but for some reason this did not happen this time around but Laura being the experienced traveller she is managed to collect her bags and find her way through immigration and customs. Good for Laura!!
Not wanting to give Laura too much rest, today we went out to kayak on the mangrove swamp. Jack partnered with Laura, Karen with Emily and Mark on his own (lucky old him – alone time!!!) We passed through the narrow channels between the mangroves, luckily no alligators or crocodiles live around this area, but there were sure to be snakes around so we didn’t want to get into the water. After an hour or so we just about done in – we are not getting too much exercise.This afternoon we took advantage of the calm weather conditions out at sea – the waves being less than 1 foot high, and went out on a snorkel tour of the reef. The main reef areas are a few miles out at sea – but the reef is in shallow
waters, only being 7 or 8 feet down even at low tide. The boat dropped us about 40 feet from the reef and we all snorkelled out in the clear waters. The sea life was stunning with large schools of brightly coloured fish swimming in and amongst the polyps of the coral. There is a huge variety of coral and fish to see. Laura who had not really snorkelled tried her best and got to see some of the fish. We were really lucky to see several barracuda and sharks. Karen and Jack got within a few feet of a 6 foot Bull Shark – which are can be deadly, but fortunately the group of us were large enough to scare them away. Mark also got to swim close-up to a sting ray. The only real danger in the water were jellyfish, not so much the plate sized moon jellyfish but the smaller but prolifically tentacled Portuguese Man-of-War which bear a very nasty sting. Karen and Emily saw the only one of this type and we all stayed well clear. This was an absolutely marvellous experience which we’d love to be able to repeat sometime during this time trip.
1 comment:
HI EVERYONE I STILL LOVE READING YOUR BLOG. I WISH WE WERE WITH YOU GUYS, REALLY. I AM NOT BRAVE ENOUGH. LOVE YOU ALL, HOLLY
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