Heading Home

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We left the lovely Wassamki Springs and headed for Acadia National Park further up the Maine Coast. After a pleasant drive through some very quaint scenery we arrived at Acadia. As usual our first task was to find our campground and setup camp. With this done we started exploring the park. We visited the only sand beach in the park and whilst the sun was shining and in the car it felt warm, there was a cold breeze coming off an even colder sea so swimming was out of the question. After that we continued our drive around the park and it really is a very beautiful place, rugged in places with the rocky shoreline overlooked by numerous hills.

We had dedicated the next day to doing some walks and had planned on walking up the parks highest peak. As we needed the exercise we took the most strenuous route up which was a 2.2km walk but you climbed 450m up. This basically meant that most of this “walk” involved scrambling straight up. This wasn’t what we had expected but it was enjoyable anyway and got our hearts going. The views from the top were very nice. The weather wasn’t as clear as the previous day but we could still see the dramatic coastline and the number of little islands dotted around. We spent the rest of the day exploring the parts of the park we hadn’t yet seen.

The following day we started making our way back south again towards New York. We stopped in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. This again is a lovely part of the world and everything was beautifully green and lush. We got great views of the mountains but they were a little smaller than we were expecting. We spent that day and the next driving around and exploring the region, especially the Kancamagus Highway. This is a great stretch of road with numerous stopping points for either wonderful views or walks. We partook in a number of these walks and I even went for a swim in the pools of Franconia Falls at the end of one of the walks. We also saw our first covered bridge which for me is an iconic symbol of New England so I was really glad we got to see one.

From the White Mountains it was on down back to Massachusetts. Our route there took us through Vermont which was very scenic. After winding our way through the lovely Vermont countryside we got to our final camping destination just south of Williamstown. We were staying in a state park we had found by accident and it was a really lovely place. We had lush grass and nice trees surrounding us and it was a great way to finish off our time in our trusty little tent.

The next day we drove back into New York. Fortunately the traffic wasn’t as bad as when we first arrived so we made it to our hotel by the airport easy enough. We weren’t flying until the next day so had some time to kill. We headed into New York, Manhattan to be precise, and after paying a small fortune for the Airtrain and rail tickets we arrived at Penn Station. We exited the station right into Madison Square Gardens. We then proceeded to go to the Empire State building before making our way up to central park. We battled through the mass of people, survived the cab drivers and eventually arrived at central park which provided a slight degree of peace and tranquillity. After walking around the park for a while we braved the madness again and made our way to Times Square and then through Macy’s. We wanted to stay in town until it was dark so popped into a diner to get something to eat. After spending over an hour in the diner and no signs of it getting any darker we decided to walk back up to Times Square and then make our way back to the hotel. The trip back to the hotel was fun as we decided not to pay the kings ransom for the Airtrain and so walked the last 3 miles to the hotel. This was a very interesting walk as it gave us an idea of what the other side of New York life is like.

The next day we flew home. It was a 15hr flight back to Johannesburg and then a short hop down to Durban. The flights were fine but more than anything it was great to be back and to see our families. We have had a great time these last couple of months. We have seen and done so many wonderful things I don’t think it has all sunk in yet, we have been really blessed to have this amazing opportunity. The time has flown by and we can’t actually believe we are back already. We would like to thank you all for following our trip and for leaving messages, we really loved hearing your comment - it felt almost like we had our family and friends with us on our trip. We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures and hopefully we didn’t bore you too much.

Thank you once again, take care and good bye.

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Photos

Sandy Beach
The only sandy beach in Acadia National Park

Comments

[Marilie]

Aag nee!!!! I got used to reading about all your adventures..and now you are home!!!!! Please keep on sending us info regarding settling into your new home contry!! Good luck! m