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From: Renee
lakes: 10000
Date: 16 Jun 2008
Time: 17:16:15 -0400
Remote Name: 72.61.245.120
Sipke and I arrived in Somers Point, NJ a few hours ago... and having only been to Newark in the past.... I really cant believe were in Jersey. It's quite beautiful here. We're residing at the Marriot Residence Inn, and our back yard is the intercoastal waterway at the point that it joins the Egg Harbor River. We survived and enjoyed our stay on Chincoteque and Assateaque Islands. The paddling out there is beautiful, although the Assateaque bay is quite shallow, low tide will have you scraping with your paddle quite frequently. The water in the bay is warm and friendly, the horses are approachable from the water, more so than by land. For those not familiar with Chincoteaque/Assateaque, there is a herd of wild ponies on Assateaque, that legend has are descendants of Spanish Moor ponies shipwrecked off the island. The fire department on Chincoteaque owns the herd, and every third Wednesday in July, the ponies are herded across the bay, down main street and penned at the fair ground. The weanling foals are auctioned off on Thursday, and Friday the rest of the herd is driven back to Assateaque Island. The money earned finances the Fire Department, and the herd of ponies is prevented from overrunning and overpopulating the island. Chincoteaque, the city, is a quaint little tourist town, with oodles of shopping and seafood. We happened to fall in to their 2nd Saturday celebration, and many of the stores had live entertainment, wine tastings, and snacks. We found a vineyard in the area that does kayak tours to an island, for a wine and cheese tasting. We didn't get to take advantage of that.... but we may return. All in all, highly recommended as a kayak destination, just stay on Chincoteaque in an Inn or HOtel, and if you camp on Assateaue.... camp on the Atlantic side. The bay side camp ground makes Minnesota mosquitos look benign. Hi to all. Renee and Pete