Wednesday, Mar 21

There isn’t a good place to leave a dingy on the beach, so we decided that after shuttling our stuff to the beach in Wind Shepherds dingy, Ginny tied it back to our boat and then swam in to shore. We took the very obvious path, just past the sign and headed up a steep incline to the top of the hill, then followed the very gentle slope all the way to the chained gate that gave us access to the parking lot for the beach. As we jimmied our way thru the gate, we experienced our first indication that these lovely islands were all part of prior military use….the sign on the other side of the gate warns of unexploded ordinance…hmmm, oh…guess that is why the gate is chained, or maybe it is us to stop people from driving there, as it is easy enough for walkers to make there way thru. The beach here (supposedly one of the worlds top ten) is beautiful, with pounding surf and white powdery sand. After relaxing for a while, we wander to the left to see the two tanks left to decay on the beach and also find one of the prettiest campgrounds just back from the shore, in the shade of the trees, with a breeze off the sea. Lovely! While John took in some rays, Ginny, Jim and I explored the other side of the beach, and passes thru a lovely guest house setup on our way to view the Flamingo Lake. We found out that there really aren’t any Flamingos here…but there used to be, hence the name of the lake and the beach, so we returned to the main beach, by We bought some lunch from the vendors set up at the beach, quite possibly the best beach food I have ever eaten, Chicken Parmiagiana Sandwich, Italian sausage and Calamari? From a beach vendor?! We eventually made our way back to thru the locked gate and back to the boats we left on the other side.