Looping NZ Style: Tiki-Touring Cabbage Key et al.

We LOVE tiki-touring. It is the act of getting out of our immediate surroundings, by any means possible and setting off to discover what is 'over there'.

WE decided, part way through the morning, today, that we would stay another night where we are currently anchored off Useppa Island, Charlotte Harbor. I don't know if it is strictly Charlotte Harbor, but going south along the ICW towards our next destination of Fort Meyers.

We left the boat around 10am, this morning after putting the dinghy into the water.
I took some photos of the boat as we were leaving. Always good to look back at our baby and see that she is secure.
No, this isn't our baby:) It is a boat that came past us this morning and looked unique enough for me to get the camera out in a hurry. We kind of expected some Vikings to appear onboard, but were a bit disappointed to see real people! (not that Vikings aren't, if you know what I mean:) )

Another first, this morning. Our Grapefruit came with pips already sprouting. We had never seen this before...have you?

Time for the Tomatoes and herbs to get their Vit. D...and they stayed there most of the day until the big black clouds threatened rain, and we took them inside. I don't want the containers overflowing and making the fly deck all dirty! We don't have the spare water to do an adequate cleanup job.

This is the photo I was referring to...looking back to make sure she is hunky dory.

We motored across the ICW to Cabbage key and the Historic Tarpon Restaurant and Inn, for lunch and a wander, to see what there is to see.

We parked the dinghy on the beach, as instructed by the Harbor Master.

The old Inn has almost every surface covered in $1 bills....as much as $50k worth, we are told! WE didn't add ours to the mix because we felt we paid enough for our meal as it was...$29.95 for a chicken sandwich for Waz, and a Shrimp Salad for me...and water was $2.50 per bottle...we bought two..duh!

The cottage, below, is for rental, as are a few others on the island. They don't look very inspiring, but they all seemed to be full. The fenced off area is for the Gopher Tortoise burrows. One of them is called 'Speedy'! I wonder why? :)

As you know, we love the Osprey and were delighted to see that a couple had made a nest on top of the Historic Water Tower, on Cabbage Key.
This is an adult, circling overhead.

Yes, we climbed to the top to see what we could see. This is the highest point in these parts...actually in all of Florida, perhaps, because the State is so flat. As we might have said before, the highest points in any city, are the trash deposits!

The view to the ummmm....west? I think I had lost my bearings by now, lol.

The view to the ICW to the north...I do know this direction!

This was the view to the west, for sure...

We were fascinated by these fix-it measures on the top platform of the water tower. I think the crack needs some filler and the screws tightening, don't you?

The above view is out to the ICW, again, but I was fascinated by the foliage and the tin roof of the cottage, previously mentioned, for rental.

The same cottage...everything is pretty overgrown, as you can see, and in need of some landscaping, perhaps?

The Mother-in-Law's Tongue is like a forest here...

It was hot and humid, but we still decided to 'do' the track around this area and see what wildlife we could find. We sure found some!!:)

Do we go left of right??

The tail of a Rat Snake, that was sunning itself on the sandy track when we approached. I wasn't quite fast enough with the camera to capture the whole thing, but this one was about 3 feet long!

The Gopher Tortoise is used to people, on the island, and it did nothing more than keep one of it's beady eyes on us...

The fall colors of the Sea Grape...lovely in the noon sun.

These Ibis were feeding in the swamp.

OLD shells were everywhere, and we discovered why....The island has a large number of Shell Mounds from about 6-7,000 years ago when the area was populated by about 50,000 CAlusa Indians, who populated the Charlotte Harbor area and this whole coastline before the Cubans arrived.

The Shell mounds look like this!

The Historic Water Tower looks distinctly tropical, doesn't it? Perhaps it is the white paint?..palm trees??

One happy first mate after lunch. It was very bright and sunny...and hot!

This Egret is the Village scrounge. He was a real nuisance and looking for food handouts, which we hate. He apparently will attack people for their hamburgers! Hmmmm....

After that, we set off again, at full blat, I might add, for Pelican Island and Cayo Costa, which we passed on the way along the ICW. Waz had wanted to go into the cove at Pelican Island, but the channel there is skinny, and I have had enough of skinny channels. As it turns out, lots of boats our size were in there, so we would have made it, but my paranoia was a good thing, as we have more privacy where we are currently...so much so, that we were able to shower off the duck board, last night:)

Leaving the Restaurant

Another of the cottages for rent! nice?

This Idyllic scene was on the way to Pelican Island

fishermen everywhere

on the way to hunt for manatees, which we were told about by some loopers we hailed on the way into the bay. We were invited onto their boat and spent a very pleasant time chatting with them. It is a small world indeed...they asked us if we knew a good friend of theirs in NZ, and as luck would have it, we did! What are the chances of that? The friend used to be a client of ours from our Gallery:)