Tarpon Basin, Key Largo, Florida, USA

We have seen things today so special, so beautiful that we will never be able to adequately share them in words with you. You will have heard of such things, some of you may have seen them already. But we were seeing these mangrove islands and grass flats for the first time. Oh, I know, they don't seem all that attention getting, not the ones of Turtle bay in Charlotte Harbor. But these, lush, thick, deep, National Geographic exciting sights. Why it is like being thrilled to have a hamburger at McDonalds and then have someone take you to Ruth Chris Steakhouse. That type of difference.

We came to Key Largo to meet with Joe and Dolly whom we met on the Suwannee River last May. We felt like rather then stumbling around on our own we would enlist their forty years of Keys living to help us develop a list of things to see and do. They shared with us a handful of ideas yesterday and later in the week they plan on spending an afternoon marking up our charts with the good stuff

So today we set off to explore this mangrove island. We crept along the shore line in Capt'n Lynnie's Dinghy, (her Convertible) looking, searching and then suddenly I swerved toward the island and brushing aside some small limbs and entered into the island. There are creeks that go through the island that are 5' to 20' wide and most are at least 8' deep. The Mangroves plant their web of roots like arched feet, looking as if standing on tiptoe to keep there trunks out of the briny wetness. There is no soil; no rocks, just Mangrove roots as far as one can visually penetrate through the dense root and trunk systems. You can't see very far, normally just a few yards, if that. The leafy foliage starts after a brief trunk above the roots and then branches scatter in all directions and in the creeks form a dense canopy. A tunnel of green foliage and grayish to white limbs. Sometimes we had to duck under big branches, other times motor around the roots. It was ever so quiet when we turned off the engine. Some places the creeks widen and exposed the sunlight. At times the creeks would open up to ponds and even an embayment of considerable size. Fish of all sizes, but mostly small fry, could be seen around the tangle of roots. It was magical.

We left our basin that is about one mile in an irregular circle and went out through a cut in the Mangroves to a large open expanse of water that was at most 4' and no less then 2' deep. This large bay of 2-3 miles across was one huge grass flat.

We went out toward the middle, shut down the engine on the dinghy and just gently floated with the water. There was no air movement detectable. We leaned over the balloon side of the dinghy with our faces only inches from the water and peered down to the bottom for a lifetime or an hour it is hard to tell which as we were suspended in time peering more microscopically at a grass flat than we ever had before. Creatures and plant life abound. It seemed extravagant. It was so perfect as to feel like we were doing something illegal. As if we were stealing an icon from nature by daring to look upon. Oh, we must be terrible, because we visually feasted on the seemingly endless plate before us.

Now we sit silent on the back deck. Wondering how we ever got so lucky as to be able to share these moments together.

Our view from a world gone right.

Wayne & Lynn