Welcome to Shroud Cay in the ECLSP

We said our farewell to Normans as yet another private plan took off from the airstrip that morning.  Our destination was Shroud Cay in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park.  This was a big deal because during all of our planning, getting to the park and exploring the many Cays was a huge goal so we were pretty excited...everything has been exciting and new and a visual wonderland.

Our new definition of 'commute'

We decided to take a mooring ball in Shroud...that was over a week ago so I don't remember why but I'm sure it was that something terribly nautical and fascinating had happened or was going to happen (thanks Master and Commander) or we just decided to do it because it supports the park.  We spotted the payment box and decided our afternoon adventure would be paying our fee and hiking to the fresh water well on the Cay and through the mangroves.

 

 

We hit another major milestone there at Stroud--getting the Snuba tested out!  Up to this point we'd not had the opportunity, weather or location to make the commitment to setting up the rig and making sure it all worked.  Here was our golden chance!  It was a huge success and I'll cheat and tell you that it's been used again here at Warderick by two happy boys!

But first, cut the blue wire...

Air in, bubbles out...excellent

He's readier than he looks

Victory! and air :-)

By that evening we realized that we could not take the dinghy on the creek at the north end of the island because that must be done on a rising tide and we were at near low tide...hmmm, sandbar trip anyone?!!  We landed the dinghy on sand that had been underwater not two hours prior and set out to explore the shallows and all their inhabitants.  It was fantastic.  We also took a side tour before sunset of the southern creek that we'll have to visit next time and once we have kayaks ;-) I do wish I would find new and magical adjectives because great, fantastic, cool, beautiful doesn't seem enough. 

The next morning we prepared for our creek expedition to Camp Driftwood on the east side of the northern end of the island...words cannot describe this meandering waterway to the other side of the Cay...

Camp Driftwood Beach

My first shark siting

Massive Ray

The path up to Camp Driftwood

It was only about a 24 hour stop in Shroud but we packed everything we could into it!  The hike was a lot of fun and great stretching of legs, the sandbar was a discovery wonderland and the creek excursion combined everything into one.  You have no idea how many pictures we have of all of this and not a single one does justice to the true perfection of it all.  The world is meant to be seen, heard, felt, inhaled, even tasted--not photographed; but my mind is too small to remember it all so I hope the photos do their job in reminding me again and again of what my senses have experienced.  We were off again that afternoon, bound for Hawksbill and shelter from, you guessed it, another front and big blow "expected" from the south, note the use of quotes around expected.  It may be a while until I tell you about Hawksbill and Wardericks because I'm about out of data and want to go swimming off the boat...so to be continued...

Our girl...she's very happy and so are we

PS: Getting first to Normans and now into the Park Cays has been exactly what I had hoped and wished it would be, no mass commercialism, no mass people (Warderick's is 'busy' with 20 moorings), yes brilliant blues of sea and sky, yes golden and white sands, yes swimming among coral and fish of every color, yes staring out at it all lost in thought and finding some peace in my head and heart...daring to overtake the noise that's been in them for far too long.  I hope it wins!