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| Carrabelle Beach, Florida |
Between the towns of Apalachicola and Alligator Point, Florida
is the relatively undeveloped section of the Panhandle self-named the
Forgotten Coast. You won’t find high
rise hotels, chain restaurants, tourist attractions or traffic here. You will find gorgeous white sand beaches, 3 barrier
islands, stretches of undeveloped National and State Forests, 2 lighthouses, local
businesses, and kind, warm-hearted people.
They say that the Forgotten Coast encompasses 250 miles of beaches.
We are camping in Carrabelle Beach, centrally located along
the Forgotten Coast. There is a gorgeous
beach along Apalachicola Bay across Highway 98 from our campground. Next to the beach is a public beach access
area with concrete shelters and picnic tables painted faded turquoise and pink. On the sunny weekend days, the shelters were
busy but there was still plenty of room on the beach.
One day, high winds blew the water away from the shore,
exposing the sea floor and many, many stranded starfish. In one puddle that was left behind, we found tiny,
live coquinas. Coquina shells are
ubiquitous on the Gulf Coast beaches, but we had never seen the creatures that
inhabit the shells, themselves.
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| Russ' lunch at the Up the Creek restaurant in Apalachicola |
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| Oysters are big business here. Can you see the birds scavenging the meat left on the shells> |
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| Some of Apalachicola's Shrimp Fleet |
Apalachicola is an historic town with prosperous fisheries
industries. It has wide, tree-lined
streets and huge historic homes with deep, shadowed verandahs. Some of the homes are now open as museums,
and some of them have been converted to inns.
The downtown area has cute shops and seafood restaurants. We went to Apalachicola for the Saturday
Farmers Market. It was canceled because
torrential rains on Friday had flooded the market area. So, instead we strolled along the working
wharf and admired the shrimping fleet.
Later we had lunch at Up the Creek overlooking the Apalachicola
River. Grilled Oysters and Steamed Shrimp for Russ, Grilled
Shrimp Po Boy for Dana.
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| Bald Point State Park has a steep beach! |
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| Do you think this might be why they call it Bald Point? |
There are 5 State Parks about one hours drive from Carrabelle. The point of land at the intersection of
Ochlockonee Bay and Apalachee Bay near Alligator Point has been preserved as Bald
Point State Park. The interior of the
park is wetland with low-growing vegetation, which may be why the point looks “bald”. Unlike most of this area, the beaches here are
very steep. We shared our beach walk
with a swallow and 2 other people.
Horseshoe crabs breed in this area, and they have a program identifying
some of them by number, tracking their migration patterns.
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| A benefit of Daylight Saving Time is that it is easier to see the sunrise. |
This is a different way to travel for us. We will stay in Carrabelle for a total of 3
weeks. Instead of pulling up stakes and
traveling to a new location every few days, we are settled in and taking the
time to get to know the area well.
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| Tiki as we like to remember her - wet, happy, and with a ball in her mouth. |
Another difference from other trips is that there are just
two of us traveling on this jaunt. We
said good-bye to our beloved companion and fellow-explorer Tiki just days
before our departure. She was 14 ½ and
very ill. It feels a bit lonely not to
have her running along the beach with us, barking at us to throw something in
the water for her to retrieve.
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| Early morning on the beach. |
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