21 - 22 February 2022
North Beach Campground Resort, St. Augustine, FL
Marc- We have been enjoying our walks on the beautiful beaches here both on the Atlantic side as well as the Intracoastal side of the Campground. Cool how you can see both sunrises and sunsets over water here.
We traveled 15 miles down Route A1A to the Southern end of the Matanzas River at the Matanzas Inlet. On a small island in the river is Ft. Matanzas National Monument. The Spanish guarded this Southern access to the city of St. Augustine since its founding in 1565. They built the fort in 1742 out of coquina (stone made up of shell fragments cemented together by the sea). It is similar in design and construction to Castillo de San Marcos and remarkably impenetrable to cannon fire. The Fort held off British attacks in the 1740's and is intact after 280 years. The ferry to the Fort was not operating when we visited so we explored the hiking trails on the barrier island side of the Park.
On one trail through the coastal tropical forest we found a small monument among the palm trees, cedar trees and live oaks. It was here in 1565 that the Spanish killed over 250 French Huguenots. The French soldiers had come from Ft. Caroline (a French settlement in Jacksonville) to attack St. Augustine. The French ships were wrecked during a storm and the survivors were stranded on the barrier island. Surrender was not accepted by the Spanish.
I spotted a small Downy woodpecker in the trees above us. Remarkably he was chirping rather than pecking. Another trail brought us to the river front by the Fort. We had passed through this area on the Intracoastal last year aboard Lucy III and thought of using it for an overnight anchorage.
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