I must admit up front that I would know very little about the state of Florida, had it not been for the "Meet Up" clubs. Especially the hikes led by Jennifer Weise, the ultimate outdoors person.
I had not camped for many decades, the last time being in Ohio. I recall it vividly. It was a warm September and we set up shop is a nice campground.
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| With "guide" Jennifer |
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| Our cottage |
Then to our horror, at around midnight, it suddenly started to snow, forcing us to have to quickly pack our tent, sleeping bags and other gear and hightail it to a warm shelter.
I put my camping days behind me after that and had been ignoring "Meet Up" camping notices, though to interesting-looking places.
Then in February 2022, I saw a notice that they would be heading to
Hontoon island and
cottages would be available.
Despite the cold spell in Florida, the thought of a warm cottage was certainly the encouragement I needed to discover what appeared to be an interesting island. So, I jumped at the opportunity.
Hontoon Island State Park is located in Northern Florida, just offshore from the town of Deland. It boasts an interesting history, wide open spaces and a large variety wildlife.
The entire island is made up of shady groves of cypress, ash, oak, hickory and tupelo, which shroud ancient memories of a long line of native inhabitants.
It is surrounded by the St. John's River, so to get there you have to take the ferry operated by the park employees.
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| The ferry travels regularly |
The ferry is equipped with a number of wheelbarrows which campers use to take gear on and off the boat.
I was quite surprised at the amount of gear my fellow travelers, Jennifer and Sylvia were carrying, as I had always been under the illusion that campers travelled light.
But thank God these seasoned campers didn't!
For when we got to the island, I discovered to my dismay that the board on the sides of the cottages did not go all the way to the roof so all the cold air could come in get me!
Hadn't Jennifer packed EVERYTHING, I would surely have died from hypothermia!
For, it was the electric blanket and sleeping bag that she loaned me that saved the day.
During the nights we gathered around fire pits for supper and to keep warm and feed death-defying mosquitoes which had no respect for insect repellant!
It was a wonderful two days of camaraderie exercise and fun.
On Monday after we settled in, we hiked about 5km and the second day it was 10 km along well marked trails and scenic routes.
We saw lots of wild turkeys and a few shy armadillos but alas, although we saw the tracks and poop, there was no sign of the momma bear and her two cubs that lived on the island.
Next day, while some went kayaking our group traveled over to
Deland.
Here they have an excellent assortment of restaurants, and we did some sightseeing in what is a quiet, laid-back town.
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| Deland courthouse |
On the Wednesday, we drove a few miles to Orange City where you find Blue Water Springs, another state park on the St. Johns River.
These cold-water springs are brimming with all types of fish, gators and manatees. (Sea cows).
When we arrived there around 10am, a park attendant told us they had counted 516 manatees that morning. Although we were fairly late, we still saw quite a large number of those huge, beautiful, graceful mammals swimming lazily towards St. Johns River while alligators sunned themselves on the banks.
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| Where the Springs and the St. Johns River meet |
At one point, I thought
a stupid gator had the nerve to attack a manatee (considering he has so many smaller fish to eat if he was hungry), but our guide Jennifer, insisted that he had accidentally bumped into it.
A further inspection of the video below seems to confirm this.
It would be delinquent of me to do record this trip without mentioning a few of my fellow travelers.
One lady, a French/American named Ilse is such an avid outdoors person that she had just finished backpacking and camping near Tampa, but she still drove over to Hontoon to join us.
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| Ilse |
What is amazing about her is that she appears to be very frail, weighing probably less than 100 lbs, but rides a 900-cc motorcycle on which she has circled the USA several times.
My roommate, Sylvia, an Ecuadorian/American, was a successful electrical engineer but according to her, she obeyed God's call to become a missionary.
I have to admit that I thought she had an extraordinary imagination when she described some of her experiences in exotic and dangerous places like the Amazon Jungle, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Tibet, until she showed me a some of her photos!
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| Missionary Silvia |
Her experiences also included even being detained and deported From India!
Both Jennifer and I felt uninteresting in the presence of those two.
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| Stolen, but very relevant😅 |
It was really a great camping experience and to make sure I never forget this outing, the bumps and itches from the mosquito bites are ever-present four days later.
But if you love the great outdoors, a few mosquito bites are to be expected.
Memories
We three traveled together from Delray Beach
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| The three musketeers |
The swamp at the back of the island
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| Theatre at Deland |
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| At Chess Lane, Deland |
A section of Blue Water Springs
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| A mural at Deland |
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| Thursby House museum |
At one point, while inside the scientific center, we saw a few on the live loop
camera feed, but by the time we rushed outside, they had vanished.
