Recalling a kayaking tour with a family from France
Here we are a month into the New Year and are waiting for all the change we were told about in last year’s elections. We all agreed we needed “Change.” As I write this column, it is late January and I have been up to the Jersey Shore, in Mantaloken near Point Pleasant at the beachfront. We are very lucky to get a place for a few weeks, right on the beach.
Yes, it’s winter and there are no umbrellas or beach chairs on the beach; as far as that goes, there is no one on the beach. Oh, once in a while you may see a lone fisherman all bundled up making his way to the waters edge for a few casts, or a person running his dog but that’s it. Now that’s a “Change” from just a few months ago when you could not find a place to put a towel.
When we are up in New Jersey for the holidays, we like to go to some of the places we miss in Florida, like the pizza joint that has the pie with the real thin crust, or Joey’s on 37th for Italian hot dogs (my choice is a double with lots of fries on it) and last but certainly not least, the Boomer Sandwich at the Caf on the Beach.
Oh, I am sorry, you are not from Jersey? A Boomer is a culinary delight. It’s a soft hard roll (now there is a oxymoron) with a soft cooked fried egg, lots cheese and, the icing on the cake, two slices of Taylor pork roll. Some folks like to bury that with lots of ketchup; I just like mine with the soft yoke from the egg.
Well, I guess the secret of how I gain 20 pounds each time I go up north is out. With that said, let me say that it has not “Changed” from last year and that is a good thing.
I am starting to get a little hyper about getting back home to Pine Island and Matlacha. I have the Yard Dogs CD, Buffet and the Jim Morris CDs in the car and am playing “Back in the Sunshine Again” on replay.
Coming up North to visit the family is always a nice change, but it sure is great to get back home.
As I sit in the condo looking out on the beach, it is starting to snow. Where is my head? I start to think about Gulf Coast Kayak, and the last tour we had before we came up north.
I received a call from a fellow guide, Lynette Brown. If you don’t know her, she is a delight. She volunteers at a few of the local parks as a field and kayak guide. She had a family in from France on one of her trips, and they all had a wonderful time. They wanted to also go on a kayak tour with her, but she has a real job in the real world as a lab tech, and had to work on the day they wanted to go “yaking.”
She very graciously suggested a kayak tour with us at Gulf Coast Kayak in Matlacha. They took her advice and gave us a call. I had no tour set up for that day, so it all worked out for both of us.
We set it up to leave at 9 a.m. the next day. The weather was great, 81, sunny and no wind. I say no wind because the week before we had to cancel a few tours because of the wind – it was relentless coming out of the east at 20 to 30 mph, not good kayak weather.
There were four folks on tour, one older couple and their niece and her boyfriend. The older lady was very nice, contrary to what you may think about folks from France – no attitude. She had a very nice camera and wanted to capture some wildlife photos to take back home.
Now I don’t know how much you kayak, but I can tell you, not every day is like they say in the TV ads and brochures to come to Florida, and see all this wildlife. There are days when there is not a mammal or bird in sight. Then again there are days when you think you are on the Discovery Channel.
So, my point is, now the pressure is on and we hope Mother Nature will be nice to us this day and share some of her wonderment with us. As we started out, I saw two dolphin just duck under the bridge, so I say, “Dolphin at two o’clock.” They looked at one another and then at their watch, they never got to see the dolphin, they just seamed to vanish into the deeper water down the pass.
Therefore, we then went north and stayed in the deeper channel hoping to spot some more dolphins. We then had another quick rush – all kinds of disturbance on the water in front of us about a 1/2 mile. When we got close enough to see what it was, I was disappointed. It was not what I had hoped for, it was not a large pod of dolphin, it was a very large school of mullet, in shallow water, darting back and forth, and jumping out of the water.
On the other hand, my friends from France were having a ball. I told the ladies that if they were lucky enough to have one land in their boat, that it was customary to pick it up right away and kiss it on the lips, and that this would bring them good luck. One gal asked what kind of luck? I told her that the luck would be that another one would not jump in the boat that day and she would not have to kiss it. They all laughed and they got some good pictures of the jumping mullet.
We paddled on until we came to some thick mangroves. We talked about the different kinds we had, the red, the black, the white, and the buttonwood. We saw the seed of the red mangrove, and talked how this tiny seed would be a mangrove forest some day. We had very good dialogue about the importance of the mangroves in Southwest Florida and what they mean to our wildlife.
We paddled for about another hour and a half and were blessed by seeing many birds – we saw ibis, blue herons, little blue herons, egrets, and we even lucked out with a few spoonbills.
The tour was almost over, and we had a good day, but we did not see any more dolphin. I asked if they were tired yet and did they want to wrap it up after about the three hours we had paddled. They were in good shape and I had one more trick up my sleeve, just maybe a dolphin under the bridge on the other side. They all wanted to try just a few minuets more for the dolphin pictures.
I took them close to the north side of the bridge where, sometimes, the dolphin are feeding. Nope, not a dolphin in site. We then made our way back to the base camp when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I saw about 15 coconuts bobbing in the water moving fast with the tide flow under the bridge. Well, thank you lord, it was a large pod of manatee. There were large ones, medium ones and even a few small ones. We paddled to one side and watched as they made their way up the pass. The cameras were working overtime, and all were very happy. They came to get shots of wildlife and Mother Nature came through.
So, as I get ready to leave the frigid north, I look forward to coming home to the many great clients and I hope nothing has “changed” in sunny downtown Matlacha, and Pine Island, for it truly is a paradise.
Till the next adventure – it’s always a great day in MAT-LA-SHA and thanks for paddling with Mel the Guide.