In addition to the park lands there is the Pelican Island Wildlife Refuge and county parks, so this coastal area is unusually green with a beautiful expanse of undeveloped beach. Fishing is very popular in the man-made inlet and on both sides of the island. It's also a popular surfing and kayaking spot. Surprisingly there was a variety of biking options too. The park has about 6 miles of single track. The roads have a very generous bike lane and there is also the wonderful 14 mile Jungle Trail, which has a hard packed sand surface. The jungle trail was built when this area grew grapefruits and pineapples. Philip had a lot of work to do, so I got out and biked most days during our week-long stay.
Morning glories are common along the dunes and bay woodlands.
We experienced our first rainy day. Amazing actually because we've been on the road nearly six months. In some ways it was a treat to hunker down in the van for the day.
The winds were quite strong as the storm blew in from the west. The van was actually rocking for a short time.
I got to retreat to the bedside.
While Philip worked in the office. I think he uses ear plugs when he is trying to work and I am bored. Yack, yack, yacking away!
We had a couple of wonderful kayak paddles. Once we were escorted by dolphins. Our paddle in the Pelican Island Wildlife Refuge was incredible. We saw a pelican rookery loaded with nesting brown and white pelicans, a bald eagle, a golden eagle, an enormous great blue heron with superb mating plumage and a night heron. The yellow-crowned night-heron is a really striking bird and it was our first sighting of one. But, alas, we lost many of our photos while trying to download them.
So, we are left with this warning. Who knew?
And this photo of an adorable (look closely) wood stork. Thankfully, these storks do not deliver babies or else they would be traumatized from the start.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment