Valley Church Beach

The drizzle set the tone for our day on the beach. As we approached the turnoff for Valley Church Beach, we saw the church on a hill on the left side of the road. We thought. But the driver continued on, so we thought perhaps we were mistaken. We'd only been to the beach once before. No, we were right. The driver suddenly remembered we wanted to get off there, and proceeded to slam on the brakes on the wet road, and then started to back down the road. We kept assuring him we'd walk back to the turnoff, but he continued to back up. Nervously, we turned around and eyed the curve in the road just behind us. Thankfully the driver thought he had done his penance for forgetting, and stopped the bus to let us off.

By the time we started down the sand road to Valley Church Beach, it was raining a bit more ambitiously. And for the rest of the afternoon, we had intermittent showers. The sun never really came out, but only once was the rain really heavy. Unfortunately, everything we had got drenched (and thank God for that waterproof iPhone case. G was afraid to take his out of its plastic bag).

We set our tarp under a tree first and foremost for shade, in case the sun came out, which it didn't, but it did provide a bit of protection from the rain. Undeterred, I blew up a float and splashed about in the water. There is a bar/restaurant called The Nest at one end of the beach that rents chairs and umbrellas, but we like the quieter end of the beach. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a drop off getting in the water, and I misjudged getting back out, not standing up in time because the tiny shells pieces were painful to walk on. Instead, I got dragged on my knees up on the beach, and my razor cuts aren't my only issue any more. Fort Lauderdale, good razors and bandaids can't get here soon enough!

Photo 1: marsh near Valley Church Beach

Photo 2: storm clouds loom in the distance. This is the storm that provided a really heavy rain and left us (and our towels) totally soaked.