Bye Bye Bessie in Myakka

In a fitting farewell to our beloved Bessie, we visited the wild and scenic Myakka River.

The Myakka lies inland from Florida’s west coast, south of Tampa.

Alligators exist aplenty here and we spied many big boys sunning themselves on the banks.

But even more cool were the flocks of vultures circling overhead and those perched high above us in the trees and hopping their way along the banks of Upper Myakka Lake.

The birdwalk stretching out onto the Lake afforded us a chance to view a multitude of wading birds from a different perspective.

But everybody’s favourite experience in the Park was the canopy walkway and tower.

The view out over the palm canopy from the top of the tower was spectacular and the climb up helped rid the boys of some of that excess energy.

At our campsite, Nath chopped the last of our wood then built the fire to beat all fires.

We drank the last of our ‘good stuff’ (the magnums of Aussie red wine we’ve been buying here in the States at dirt cheap prices) and sat around the fire until late into the evening.

Unfortunately our time in Bessie has come to an end. 

Following this visit to Myakka we drove back up to the Tampa/Orlando area and handed her over to her new owners.

The fact we quickly found willing buyers prevented us from fulfilling our secret wish of putting a brick on the accelerator and driving her off the end of the Florida Keys to become a diving attraction.

Ahhhh Bessie.... Lots of good times..... We’ll never forget you.

Now for some non-Bessie adventures....