Writings By Date| Journey to Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
It was an exhausting walk. We took a relaxed pace, so we wouldn't get overheated, but our shirts were still soaked from our day packs within just a few minutes. The road just continued straight forever, with no signs of anything in the distance at all, and only the occasional sign for "Sam Tillett's Hotel & Tour", which was where we were headed. We had it on good authority that Sam Tillett was the best bird-watcher in the area, and gave great lagoon tours early in the morning.
In 40 minutes, we saw one car going the opposite direction, but that was it. Finally, after about two and a quarter miles, we heard something coming up behind us: it was that 10:30 bus. Damn that shortcut attempt! We thumbed it down, and hopped on for a dollar apiece. It went for about another mile or so, across a very expansive lagoon. This lake was huge! We were certainly going to have some time tomorrow touring it.
On the other side of the lagoon, we saw another sign for "Sam Tillett's", this one much larger, so we figured that was the spot. We jumped off the bus, and walked back a few feet to the sign, but just as the bus pulled away, we realized it was just another billboard. We were back on our feet again!! I was so furious, I actually jumped up and down cursing. Erin was equally mad, but had to admit my reaction was kind of funny. (In retrospect, it was.)
At that moment, we discovered a building on the other side of the street, which was a Visitor Center for the park. A gentleman probably heard my eloquent phrasing, and invited us over to tell us about the park. He told us how to get to Sam's — about a 10-minute walk more — and that made us feel somewhat better, though not much in our sticky, sweaty clothes. Besides that, the guy told us about lagoon tours, and said there were maps and stuff if we wanted to walk trails. However, judging from the signs we saw from the window, most of them appeared to be under ten feet of water now. (Makes sense, given it's the tail end of the rainy season.) In order to do all this, a donation of BZ$40 ($20 US) per person was requested. Our lagoon tour was expensive enough, so we passed on this, and hit the road again.
We resumed our death-march pace up the road, passing half a dozen young kids on bicycles, who would quickly say hello to us as they passed. You know, everyone's so nice, even the kids! It seems so unlike America, where people generally keep to themselves. We were about one minute from passing out, when we finally saw the sign pointing to Sam's. Just to add a little touch of drama, we could feel a light drizzle coming on as we reached the driveway, although it was gone before we even made it to the door.
