I have been walking 7 Mile Beach for the last....30 years? Yikes.....
Anyway, things change, as always. For me, the change on the beach was a bit sad. A few vendors are gone from Earth and the one I miss the most is Neville, the Patty Man. He was a hard-worker, always pleasant, always fair. I will forever regret not taking him up on his invitation to come to his yard and help/watch him prepare the patties before dawn...Others are gone as well, although some may not have departed...I did not see MANY of the regular beach characters and hope all is well.
Jem, the FRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIT lady is still there. I made my son pick up her head basket and put it upon her head and he was amazed at how much it weighed. Which, was nothing compared to making him carry her handbag of fruit, coconuts, etc...for a few stops down the beach. He learned a few things about hard life and heavy lifting....
It seems, for the most part, there is far more beach area than in August 2013. The beach area around Travellers had increased, although they need to do a final cover up over their sandbags and plant some seagrass upon them. Its a bit....unsightly....
Many places on the beach were closed due to the lack of business, even a few days after ATI....there are squatters in the old Tidewater and they are friendly and just trying to make a go of life. Ice cold RS and a decent no-pressure vibe in the front of the abandoned beach bar....
There were hardly any beach higglers/vendors. So very few. Half were the old-time crew like Jem, the pastry guy, Neville's replacement and a few others. The other half were a mix of children trying to sell choco for "school" and desperate folks trying to sell stalks of aloe or whatever they found that morning. The non-regulars were also a mix of non-aggressive and extra-aggressive. One guy, who I never saw before, tried engaging us with the usual "snorkeling, parasailing, sunset cruise" chant and we just smiled and kept walking. He replied "You f-ing people should just go to Mexico. You are weird *******s" I then spun and told him in Spanish to do some unspeakable things with a goat. Then I told him in English that just because I don't want his services is no cause to insult me. He told me to go f-myself. I told him that was a physical impossibility, but I would be pleased to see if he could do it to himself. When he realized I wasn't going to take his ****e, he ducked his head and mumbled up north on the beach. My kids felt sorry for the another poor guy trying to sell us the same sad aloe stalk everyday, and I probably should have bought him a lunch. My bad, there. Overall, the beach was exceedingly quiet, almost deserted, on the south end. There was some parasailing towards TreeHouse.
Now for the best and oddest news regarding the beach......THERE ARE NO MORE JET SKIS!
That's right. Although we saw a few way back in the trees from the beach, we did not see, at any time, any jet ski operating. No more aggro jet ski hawkers! And no more jet ski noise! OMG!!!!!!!!
We had drinks at Woodstock. Nice bar. Classy, even.
Lunch at Alfred's Ocean Palace was great, as always. Don't miss the fish and chips.
The water was quite warm. We only saw one baby stingray and precious few fish. A couple of rogue starfish. We didn't take a snorkel trip, but the off-beach snorkeling has become.....a waste of time. Nothing to see.
We ate lunch at the place with the plastic chairs on ropes....Sun Beach? Very reasonably priced with good service and good food. We enjoyed that place....
I didn't sense the desperation on the beach that occurs in August, but that was probably because I came two days after ATI...
The weather was great the entire time. Never too hot or too humid. After day 3 it rained every day between 2 and 4pm. As it always does in summer!
Overall, I think the beach has improved since 2013, both in size and in reduction of aggravation from higglers/jet skis.
Next-Part 3-The Cliffs
Originally Posted by Jaherring
