Pandemic Road Trip: Florida to North Carolina: Exploring Ginnie Springs

Hello Hiveans!

It's been a little while since my last post, I've felt a bit uninspired to write and share, and also a bit busy with other things going on, but I figured I shouldn't let it go too long, so I thought I'd share one of my recent adventures, even though I still have 3 series to finish, but we'll get to get that eventually :)

So last month, I headed down to Miami again to meet up with a friend and road trip to a cabin in the woods he rented for the month. It would be a 2 day drive, and then I would stay for a couple days before heading back to Boston.

It's 4am. I'm tired and groggy, but I need to get my shit together, and head to the airport, even though I hadn't slept. My flight was at 6am, to get into Miami at 9am so we could make good time. Disgruntled and half awake, I'm out the door.

Airport wasn't busy, and flight wasn't full, so I slept a bit on the plane. I wake up in Miami, and like clockwork, my friend is there to grab me and we hit the road.

We had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us from Miami to North Florida, a place called Ginnie Springs. We decided we'd set that as our half way point and camp out there for the night. It's an amazing and beautiful fresh water spring, what wasn't so beautiful was the price tag. We thought it was 30$ for a spot, but it was 30$ per person, ouch.

We paid up, got some fire wood and then went to grab a spot. We found a spot on the river, also next to a spring, and decided that was a good spot (it wasn't).

We unpacked a bit, set up, and then headed to check out the springs before it go too late.

The water was beautiful to look at, but freezing once you got in, well, for Florida standards at least. 

After a little swim, it was time to head back to the site and setup for the night. Got my new hammock tied up, as did my friend, even though he was pretty much over the river. (Florida=Gators)

I wasn't sure how I'd like the hammock camping thing, but I will say, it was pretty cozy once I got everything setup right.

That was, until the night.

The camp site next to us was pretty much having their own Dubstep party BLASTING music for hours until finally someone came over to tell them to chill, and then all the surrounding sites cheered that they finally shut down their music. But not to be out done, another site not far from us was playing movies with what sounded like a portable fucking cinema sound system. But it wasn't as bad as the dubstep guys.

I'm trying to sleep despite the noise, but then I hear rustling in the woods next to me. I'm locked in a hammock, we're on the river where gators live, and this thing sounds like a decent size. I quickly unzip, jump out and run for the flash light. I run back to look and expect to see a gator lurking, but after a few seconds I spot the creature, it was an armadillo wandering around. It's going to be a long night.

I try again to go to sleep, only to hear a really LOUD splash right near my friends hammock, we're pretty sure it was a gator killing a fish or turtle. Who thought sleeping next to the river in hammocks was a good idea?

Anyway, we make it through the night, despite more drunk people fighting, a girl trying to run her boyfriend over and slamming on the horn for legit 10 minutes straight and other crazy Florida shit.

We get up at sunrise and go to hit the springs again before everyone else gets there.

And then time for another swim, in freezing cold water! But at least this time, there was a lot more to see at this spring, like a hole that leads to an underwater cave system!

And we actually caught some cave divers going down and into the caves!

After that, it was time for one more dip in the main spring and then time to hit the road!

Ginnie Springs was pretty amazing, despite the steep price. I really want to go back to this area and check out all of the springs as some point, but we definitely made the most of the time we had there.

That's it for this one, hope you enjoyed! I'll probably follow up with part 2 of this one soon, and then try to wrap up some of my previous series soon too!

You can also see more of my work and prints for sale at www.SeanGold.com and on Instagram at @SeanGoldPhotos

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