Adventures on Lake Ouachita, Arkansas Day 1 & 2

Crawdad Island for Stargazing
Lake Ouachita
"Tea Time" with fellow yachters
Sunset over the Lake
Joe Bill & Sandy out sailing

Our campground for 4 days in Hot Springs, Arkansas was right on Lake Ouachita which is a huge lake of 40,000 acres with a shoreline of 975 miles, as there are so many little coves. When we first checked into the campground we were initially disappointed as it was the first park we have encountered where we couldn’t get phone, internet or TV. Obviously that is how most people like state parks to be as they are camping out and are hoping to get away from it all, but for us, wherever we are in our RV we are ‘at home’ and our location happens to be in a campground! We have been keenly following the hunt for a new US president and right now both candidates are announcing their running partners and holding their big rallys, and we have enjoyed watching the political posturing each evening until now. Plus, Murray’s footy team was playing the last of the elimination games and he wasn’t able to listen to it on our computer – so our timing for having no TV or internet was not too good!

As it turned out, on our first night at the campground the park ran a 2 hr stargazing boat trip at 8pm, so we took advantage of that. The ranger took us and a group of 6 others a few miles up the lake past a finger of land where we saw lots of flickering fireflies. We reached tiny Crawdad island where we got out of the boat, walked a few feet and sat on top of a rise and looked up at the night sky. The ranger had a laser beam with him, and pointed out some of the star constellations which was interesting to us as they are quite different to those we see at home in our night skies – no Southern Cross over here. He started off the evening by recounting an American Indian folklore story explaining how the stars came to be in the sky…He pointed out the north star which is handy if you need to get your bearings at night; he explained that while all the other stars rotate around the sky depending on the time of the year, the north star stays in the same place.. Everyone in the group was friendly and one couple asked if they could drop in on us one evening to share a red wine. A very pleasant evening indeed.

On the next day we were in for a sailing adventure. Joe Bill and Sandy have been outstanding ambassadors for their State and have been keen for us to experience some of its natural wonders. Today they picked us up at lunchtime and drove us to a marina about 20 minutes away where Joe Bill’s brother John Benton and his wife Betsy have a large yacht. We spent a few very pleasant hours under open sail, far away from the maddening crowd. Storm clouds started gathering overhead and biting black flies appeared from nowhere, so we decided that was our signal to return to the marina where the fellow yachters habitually meet for ‘tea’ at 5.15pm. ‘Tea’ in this case consists of everyone bringing their preferred drink and some nibblies to share and they sit in the gangway between all the yachts and socialize. Betsy provided some tasty hors d’oeuvres, and another couple provided BBQ spare ribs they had cooked in a smoker for 6 hours - they were finger lickin’ good. The same couple also bought along freshly cooked corn on the cob for everyone – it was farm fresh and so sweet and tender. The piece de resistance was Sandy’s very popular pound cake. By the time all the regulars turned up, there must have been at least 20 people sitting or standing along the narrow walkway. We were introduced to each one of them, and it was interesting hearing them catching up on each others news and chatting with us. They made us feel very welcome. Our original plan had been to drop into a restaurant on the lake before leaving for home, but by the time we had finished on the dock, we had no need of any restaurant! A video of all aboard the yacht will be uploaded soon.