22.06.14

morning run:
Gracie
Posey
Frijolita
Lily
MoMo
Xmul
Steve McQueen
Tori
Murci
(9)

No-man's land: ~9k. We haven't gone to no-man's land for years now; this is not the season for tourism out there so there was little chance of us running into anyone and I took a well-behaved group to make sure there were no shenanigans. I was interested in finding some of the flora that Roni and I have been reading about which is native to the mangroves and no-man's land is where the mangroves start. It was with new eyes that I saw it and the few things I recognized made me want to learn more and go back. I let Xmul off of the leash for a brief stretch when we were farthest out but had her back on well before we left the deep monte. This turned out to be fortuitous as we got barked at by unseen dogs just after I had her back on the hook; since Xmul was not in play everyone else came back to me quickly and we carried on. It was hot and bright for most of the run; the dogs tore through the water and jumped in every puddle. When we got to the place where the path through no-man's land joins the long and winding road I knew we should hit the beach to give everyone a swim and a chance to cool down so we took the Au Soleil Couchant road all the way to the beach, headed south to the tortuga sign, cut across the charco west of the blue bag trail and came home via the coco trail - quite a slog in parts but nobody minded. The water was clear and everyone horsed around a lot. The bugs were only noticeable in spots. I had Tori on the other end of the leash with Xmul before we got to the coco trail and everyone was good to the gate.
GRADE: A