Down the Suwannee

Well, we made it. All the way to the mouth of the Suwannee River. We had a great time, five of us set out and cruised down the river. We loaded Popeye’s electric scooter on board and Sally’s manual wheelchair. Hooked up the GPS to the laptop and away we went, it was reminiscent of all sorts of boating adventures, Rosie and Charlie on the African Queen, Rosie and Jim on the canal boat ‘Ragdoll’, Toad, Ratty and Mole out on the river, Captain Pugwash on the Black Pig, we even had Tom (the cabin boy) and Lucy with us. There was even a flavour of the humour of Three Men (And Two Women) In A Boat, by Jerome K Jerome, to say nothing about the dog, which we did not have with us. We saw lots of alligators, jumping mullet, wading birds and Osprey. The weather was a very pleasant 75 ish. It took about an hour and a half to get to the little town of Suwannee. The town is a combination of roads and canals, so that almost every house has a car access at the front and a boat access at the back. We cruised through the canals and tied up at Bill’s Fish Camp and Bait Shop and then wandered through the town, which took about 10 minutes.

This was in preparation for the highlight of our visit, a meal at Sarah’s Bar and Grill. A sprawling two story wooden building with the grill upstairs (most living spaces in Suwannee are upstairs as it is known to flood). We had a delightful meal of local specialties such as Hamburger and Philly Cheesesteak, which were quite good. Tom had the Grouper Sandwich. Outstanding were the sides of Yam nuggets and Pea Salad. But it was a lot better than the picnic we had prepared in case Suwannee was closed on a Monday. We returned to the boat and cruised our way back up the Suwannee River. Our concern being that the tide was now at a low ebb and the river, though wide, is very shallow in parts. However we did not encounter any sand banks and returned to a hero’s welcome (mixed with some incredulity that we had accomplished the venture without falling off the edge of the world, and relief that we had returned at all) from the Old Salt Dogs we had left on the quayside that morning. We finished off the day with a good old mug of tea and a sit round the campfire.