Another very nice day with the sun shining in a blue sky and the temperature around 70 by mid morning. After breakfast, cleanup and walking the dogs we decided to go for a drive down to Lovers Key State Park http://www.beachhunter.net/lovers_key.htm and check out the beach.After driving down to the end of Estero Island we crossed Big Carlos Bay and onto Black Island turning into the main entrance to the park. Once we paid our day use fee we continued on to a parking area where we could catch a tram that would take us to the beach.
Boarding the tram for the half mile ride the driver paused to chat with us before we left for the beach. When we got to the debarkation station the sun was slowly warming us up to about 80 degrees. With a gentle breeze blowing we started our slow meander looking for shells. We both started out in wading mode finding several nice Olive Shells and some Murex. We spent about two hours walking and wading our way north along the beach to the next access trail where we crossed back to Black Island over a long boardwalk. 
After getting back to the car and leaving the park we thought it must be lunch time s we continued south off Black Island and into Bonito Springs figuring that with all the resorts and beach activity there must be a burger joint nearby. Alas, after about five miles and no sign of anything but more resorts we turned around and went back home to have a leisurely lunch. After lunch Tina worked on her shell collection while I updated the blog. Some time around 3:30 PM we got restless so we decided to take the bikes and go for a ride. we knew that there was a nature preserve close by so we set of to search it out.
After a few false turns we rode down a dead end street and came to the parking area for the Matanzas Pass Wildlife Reserve http://www.ecotrail.com/mpass_preserve.htm. Since no bikes were allowed on the trail, we put them in the stand and walked over to the map to see which way we should go. It looked relatively straight forward. There were two loops, one short, one long - we chose the shorter one and set off on what should have been a mile and a quarter loop - out to the bay and back.
Since we were walking through a mangrove swamp many portions of the trail were elevated boardwalks. Shortly after we started we came upon two ladies who were peering at the ground below the boardwalk. We stopped to find out what they were looking at. One of the ladies said there were Fiddler Crabs down there in the small holes in the swampy ground. Sure enough, after a few minutes several started out of their holes. These were very small crabs, probably no more than half an inch across the shell.
Continuing our walk we reached the wildlife viewing station which was approximately half way around the loop. Setting out on the trail again we came to a fork with a trail map showing where we were and which way to go. We selected the left hand fork and after about a mile we came out at the back of the property where we are staying, the Red Coconut RV Park. Hmmmm.... this wasn't right. Fortunately there was another trail map, again showing where we were and where we wanted to go. We figured out what turns we needed to make and set out again to reach the end of the trail.A quarter mile later we came out at the rear of some apartments. Hmmmmm... retrace or steps?? Yep, so we backtrack and recheck the map and try once more. A half mile later we finally reached our starting point and breathed a sigh of relief, well I did anyway. After all, I'm always getting blamed for leading Tina down another mystery trail or rosy path - heheheh!
On the way back we stopped by the community pool to check it out. It's a very nice facility with a great wading pool, water slides for the kids and a swimming pool for the older kids. Next we rode back to camp and over to a nice community tucked away between the main road and Matanzas Bay. Lots of nice homes on canals with boats on raised storage as well as larger ones moored next to the house. We found some really nice examples of some different palms, too some photos and rode home. By now it is nearly 6:00 PM and time for dinner.To see all of todays photos click on the following link:
1 comment:
Nice shirt !!! ;D
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