First of all, Happy New Year!
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| Map of our kayak route |
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| Man made oyster quarry bay where we put in |
On January 5th we went to
Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, which is nearby. I had seen their guided kayak tours listed in the local newspaper several times as a great outdoor tourism opportunity and wanted to do it. Clay went along a little reluctantly. It was a 2 hour tour and cost $59 pp. There was a limit of 10 participants. Ours had 9 and 2 guides. I was the weak link. I seriously struggled. We won't plan to kayak ever again. It was not near as fun as our only previous experience kayaking in Hobart Bay, Alaska. It was windy and that didn't help. It was overcast and cloudy which surprisingly did help. We saw about a dozen kinds of birds but nothing we hadn't seen before I don't think. We were a little disappointed in the lack of other forms of wildlife but we only saw mangrove crabs and snails outside of the birds. Oh well. They're wild animals and they do want they want.
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| Me working hard! |
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| Our kayak tour group |
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| An island full of pelicans |
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| Me taking a breather |
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| "Tales" |
Afterwards we walked a 1/2 mile boardwalk loop looking for other plants, animals and birds. We only saw vultures. We laughed ourselves silly over a sign about skinks and anoles. It said they use their tales defensively. Tales! I had to point it out to Clay before he finally read what it actually said and not what he expected it to say. Another spell checker fail.
We ended our excursion at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center. We watched a film that showed more of what we had hoped to see on our kayak trip. It was interesting. Entrance was included in our kayak excursion ticket price. I can recommend a visit if just for the walking trails. The reserve is huge at over 100,000 acres but the parts we visited were easily accessible and scenic.
