Anshuman's friend Simha called us on Thursday nite to ask if we were interested in going camping to Alexander Springs @ Ocala National Forest. And Saturday morning found us picking up our camping gear - the tent, propane lamp, stove (didnt get to use this) et al from Simha's friends at the University of Florida, Tampa. Leaving Tampa, we first made our regular Saturday trip to the Sai Temple @ Inverness. After attending the noon aarti there followed by the lunch @ the temple, we set out on our journey to Alexander Springs. On our way, we stopped at the Walmart Super Store to pick up a few basics - bread, croutons, Nutela, Ranch sauce, insect repellant, propane gas, et al.
Driving for more than 2 hours, we found ourselves at our destination where 2 other friends - Ramesh & Lokesh - had already reached before us, and had gone ahead on a "mud trail". Collecting firewood & directions to our camping site from the office, we landed at the small clearing designated as camping site # D51 - well furnished with a wooden table & benches, an iron pole to hang the lamp, a circular fire pit in the ground and... and thats it! The other things provided us free of cost were the tall trees & thick bushes & shrubs - courtesy Mother Nature. The fun part was setting up the tent - the chief coodinator in achieving this Herculean task was Lokesh, while a couple of others were giving a some really useful tips here n there, on the basis of their prior camping experiences.
That done, we had only an hour and a half before the sun set, to go on a small walk in the park and check the place out.
Venturing out on foot in the Ocala National Forest made me wonder about the strange name. The word Ocala is thought to be a derivative of a Timucuan Indian term meaning fair land or big hammock. The Ocala's vegetation lives up to its name, as you will discover towering palms, large live oaks and scrubby sand pines dominating forest's scrub oak ecosystem. The forest offers camping, horse, bicycle & hiking trails, hunting & fishing in designated areas. When you drive to the forest, you will see signs of "Bear Country", or images of running deers that tell you what to expect in the forest. Speaking of signs & warnings, I had read this one online -
"Do not leave any food item open or unfinished at your camping site - that will attract bears." - no wonder we threw the banana chilkaas as far away from our camping site, as we could after eating the bananas!
Coming back after our short walk around the place a little after dusk, we sat around the fireplace to set up the fire. Once the fire was lit, the ambience turned to a very different setting - reminding me of Gulzar's line "zaraa zaraa aas-paas aag rehti hai" from a song in the movie 'Yahaan'.
It wasnt that cold (so we thought, since we had the fire) - someone warmed up his hands, someone his derriere, someone literally tried playing with the fire by holding a long dry twig and trying to toss the logs here n there to keep the fire going. Finally, we were hungry and sat down for dinner - a sumptous meal of idli-wadaa & chutney. Believe it or not, but since the wadas were cold, one of us actually roasted it over the fire - apna-apna BBQ style! ;-)
Post dinner, we saw the stars while the fire burnt. There was no moon, but the stars were quite playful - bright n sparkling - and oh so many - you wonder why you do not see those many when you are in the city. All of us tried to locate the "Saptarshi" or the Great Bear, and oh boy! We were so happy when we could locate that, along with Venus, the evening star (or is that Mars?). Nevertheless, dare-devils that we were, we set out on a night trail in the dark that took us to the other side of the Alexander Spring. The trail took not more than 30 minutes or so, but just imagine walking in the middle of a jungle that is pitch dark (no worry, we had torch lights), with those queer sounds around you, and the road though well marked goes a little zig-zag and you have one fellow amongst you who's terrified (or pretends to be terrified) about snakes and constantly keeps asking for the torch light to be displayed on the trees surrounding you to watch out for the cobra that he saw on a National Geography documentary the night before!
We did manage to return back safely to our tent from the night trail. The fire was still there, and we enjoyed its last moments of warmth before settling down in our cozy tent. Sleep was not of paramount importance, and we sat inside to play the card game - Bluff aka Challenge. That surely was a lot of fun and it was a little after midnight when we decided to call it a day!
Next day morning, we went out canoeing on Alexander Springs. A warning at the Springs said - "Do not feed the alligators - it may turn out to be dangerous." - now I would definitely never do that. Fortunately or unfortunately, we did not happen to meet these absolutely cute, loveable & adorable (these epithets are showered since we didnt meet them) creatures. Though, had it been March or April - I would have definitely not risked venturing into the Spring in a canoe after knowing that those are the months in the mating season of the gators when they are known to attack!!!
Nonetheless, we set out canoeing - wearing the orange life jackets (I was sincerely hoping that we would not these, this being my first canoeing experience) - Anshuman & Simha very wisely took the oars while I sat in the middle of the canoe - someone has to balance it right? Canoeing turned out to be real fun - initially, it took some time for us to figure out how to coordinate the movement between the front & the back oarsmen - the speed, the direction & everything had to be well orchestrated. But there was nothing stopping us once we were on our way.
The water of Alexander Spring was quite clear and we could see turtles and schools of fish swimming in the water. Lokesh & Ramesh also claimed to see an alligator sleeping under the water, though we seemed to be quite unlucky to miss out on that. There were a few others as well who had come canoeing or kayaking. Everyone felt really happy to be out there in the sun - looking at the fish in the water below, the water birds perched on the tree trunks in the middle of the spring waiting to pounce on the fish, some of us wishing to have a look at an alligator.. from a distance...
I changed positions with Simha and took charge as the oarsman at the back, while Simha replaced Anshuman at the front after a while. Rowing downstream was not much of a hassle, while upstream was definitely more pleasurable - the arms had started getting a little sore. Since we had stacked our canoe with bread, Nutela, chips, ranch sauce & croutons - we did have a nice Sunday brunch sitting in the canoe.
By the time we returned, it was almost noon..
Leaving our camping site, we then decided to explore the National Forest a little bit by driving in the Mustang & the Altima that we had. Dust flew and the wind blew as we rattled the earthy roads in the National Park, before we landed up at a very beautiful lake in the middle of a forest. There were some very well manicured lawns and small cottages to stay at the lake front, and we relaxed a little bit on the grass & felt the fresh air. The clear blue sky, the calm & alluring lake water, the fresh & bright yellow flowers at the lake front and the shelter offered by the tall huge tree created a moment of absolute sheer bliss for us.
Like all good things that come to an end, it was time for us to leave & go back home. The weekend got over, and we still live in those vivid memories that keep telling us - "Never plan in life... and you will be happiest."
