Sanibel Island had been recommended to us as a great place to ride our bikes, and Friday was set to be a beautiful day, so we decided to go check it out.
The bike path basically follows along the roads on the island, but it's still pretty. It's also nice because it's separated from the roads, so you don't have to worry about getting hit by cars.
Much of one section of the trail follows along a national wildlife refuge.
In this section we saw a tortoise munching away on the grass.
He wasn't paying us any mind at all.
It looked like the area had suffered lots of damage from the recent hurricanes.
Unfortunately, the wildlife refuge is closed on Fridays, so we couldn't go in and get a better look at it.
This was a nice place to stop for a rest, although we soon discovered that they appear to have biting sand flies here like we are used to from Belize.
Cara sat and watched the little lizards running about while Eric talked to his mother on the phone.
Approaching the northwest end of the Sanibel Island, where you cross over to Captiva, the sand was invading the bike path like it surely did every part of the island.
There was still a lot of cleanup to do in this area.
The beach on Captiva Island was still being restored.
We headed back to continue our loop around Sanibel Island.
We passed through the Rabbit Road West Reserve, which, according to the sign, is alligator habitat.
Thankfully, we didn't encounter any gators.
The developed side of the island (opposite the huge wildlife refuge) suffered lots of damage, and there was new construction or reconstruction going on everywhere.
The developed side of the island (opposite the wildlife refuge) suffered lots of damage. There were loads of empty lots where destroyed buildings had been torn down, plus lots of reconstruction and new construction.
We made it to the other end of the island where there is a lighthouse.
The lighthouse was closed off so we couldn't climb it.
At least the bathrooms were open, lol.
And the view from here was cool.
Uh oh, it looks like something must have been on fire in the distance.
Biking back to our vehicle we saw the crazy traffic waiting to leave the island via the one and only route. Unfortunately, it meant we had to sit in this traffic for a while too.
After leaving Sanibel Island we drove down to Bonita Beach to visit a friend who now lives there.
He has a great location directly across the street from the beach.
A zoomed in view of the sunset from the front porch.
We stayed a couple of nights here, just hanging out with our friend and enjoying our view from the van.
Saturday ended up being a grey, rainy day, although we were rewarded with this beautiful full rainbow when the drizzling rain finally finished. You've got to love that!
Comments