Kayaking!

Photos from my first ever kayak trip are posted below. I've never been much of a water person. I love being around it but not so much in it and the idea of getting squished into such a tight boat sitting so low on the water sort of made me nervous. But you know, things that have happened recently have opened me up a bit and I find myself more willing to do things that make me nervous. Besides, I was going with a long-time friend who knows the water well. I reminded her that my parents (whom she knows and loves) would never forgive her if she let me drown!

The swamp is a beautiful place and being able to quietly float around amongst the trees and the moss seeing the beauty so closely was a serene experience. Well, we did chatter a bit and squeal a time or two but there were moments of awed silence and appreciation for the wonder of nature. I'd love to go back sometime.

This was sunset. We had finished our trip but we were sitting in the kayaks near the landing watching the sun set.

There is a lot of gray in the swamp this time of year. The moss and the trees can look rather dull. The cypress trees do have a reddish-pink tinge to them under the bark and there are a few trees that have the orange fall-colored leaves. I pumped up the color on this one. It might almost be over-done but there is some brilliance out there in the swamp.

This ominous abandoned houseboat was one of the first things we saw as we paddled away from the landing and headed toward the closed in nooks and crannies of the swamp.

Here is one of "cuts" through the swamp. We could have paddled to the end of this and we would have been in a more open area of the lake. We went on through though.

This is some of what we saw. This is not a road! The golden brown stuff is floating on top of the water. We were waiting here for the sun to peek out and light up the trees a bit. It never really came out. I had to help things out in my editing software. We sat here for several minutes waiting and taking in the beautiful peacefulness of the day. It was at this point in the trip that I started looking around and thinking, "I don't know where solid ground is."

We had seen an alligator a few minutes earlier sunning himself on a log. We were talking a bit and he slipped into the water. You can't see through this stuff so I was a little skiddish. There were some small logs and tree trunks in the water. It was a bit jarring to hit those things because you didn't know what you were running into at first, coulda been an alligator!

The cypress trees and the moss is another beautiful part of the swamp. I love seeing their gnarled trunks.

These are two of the odder shaped trunks we saw yesterday. They were located side by side. One looks like a woman with a big rear end wearing an evening gown with a low cut back. The other one looks like a man wearing bell-bottomed disco pants!

This was one of my favorite sights of the day. I like the reflection too. My friend and I wondered how stable this tree was. It was pretty tall. We paddled on before we were tempted to bump it with a paddle or the kayak to see what would happen. We decided our families would be sad to hear that we had been hit by a falling tree in the swamp and our bodies had been eaten by alligators!

We were coming around a bend and I shot this one rather quickly. I like the way it turned out.

This is one of the lily pads. This one is brown and rusted looking. There were plenty of green ones too. The water drops rolled around like mercury on the lily pads. I was fascinated with the water droplets but I didn't get many good shots of them. If I go again some day I might spend more time trying to get good shots.

This is a turtle we saw. He had a pyramid shaped shell. We don't know if this was some sort of deformation or if this is a certain type of turtle. He didn't stay too long on the branch letting us take his picture before he slipped off into the water.

Okay, probably this is enough for one post! Maybe tomorrow I'll post a few of the bird photos I got.

I'm sure not a water girl but I had fun yesterday. My friend did most of the paddling so I was able to concentrate on taking pictures and not "tumping" over the boat! Oh, and watching to make sure no alligators reared their heads to try and get us (I've watched too much "Swamp People" TV)! Toward the end she gave me the paddle so I could see how easy it was to paddle. Paddling was as much fun as being paddled around! I learned to back up and turn around. I struggled with keeping on a straight path and stopping. I hope to get the chance to practice some more sometime.