Please don’t judge me but, I have that weirdness of watching Naked and Afraid found on the Discovery Channel Sunday nights. It’s about two complete strangers dropped off in a remote location, they take their clothes off, meet for the first time and set out for 21 days of trying to survive with food, water and shelter.
Each contestant is able to select one thing to bring to the group for a means of survival. Often it’s a fire starter, knife or a water pot to boil water. None the less it’s not enough to survive without being creative.
The couple ventures out in the wilderness to quickly set up sleeping quarters, find water, build a fire for warmth and hunt for food. We all think that might be simple but often it’s not!
Ok moving on, today we decided to take on Koreshan State Park located outside the skirts of Fort Myers Beach Florida. We knew we wanted to walk the historical grounds and explore while getting in our 10K steps.
As we began on the walking trail we immediately run into hundreds of bamboo trees. We both comment these bamboo trees would make for a great bed as they oftened used in Naked and Afraid. They use these type bamboos for their bed, shelters or float device to extricate the island.
Continuing on, we come to the river thinking here is the water source that one might boil and use for the drinking source.
We both are loving the trails but knew it would soon come to and end when we reached the historic site of the Koreshan State Park Compound. It was fun dreaming what Naked and afraid might be like as we were surrounded by this jungle we were in.
Koreshan State Park offers great natural beauty. Sprawling along the lovely Estero River, there are gardens and exotic bamboo forests left over from the community’s beautification efforts, 11 historic buildings and attractive, shaded picnic sites and an excellent campground.
For those of you that might not know about Koreshan State Park, the walking tour of the grounds and buildings tells the story of Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, who led the utopian community that eventually attracted 200 followers. They were an industrious group, operating a bakery, sawmill, printing facility, even a restaurant and hotel on the main road, U.S. 41. Like many of the idealistic communities of the era, followers believed in communal living and celibacy.
We arrived Koreshan and was greeted by the most beautiful bridges leading into the site. One might think you were in wonderland.
Next we arrived Bamboo Landing. The Bamboo Landing was important aesthetically and functionally serving transportation for passengers and freight. It provided a formal framed entrance to the grounds from the river. The landing was also used for concerts.
This entrance and presentation of the landing was another beautiful site to see. Witnessing the beauty it offered when welcoming guests to the property was awesome.
As we continued walking the trails that surrounded this amazing, historic park we found many things that lead us back to Naked and Afraid. A garden of herbs, berries and medical plants that were used for several remedies in aiding in the survival to this Koreshan group.
All sorts of trees were planted to assist in their daily working environment.
This is one of the Pines which yields Turpentine. The trunks were slashed and a cup was attached to collect the resin. Again, thinking of Naked and Afraid, what would one use this for? Possibly rub it over the body to relieve bug bites? Cleaning paint brushes was out of the question as one might use it for.
This group of Koreshan’s thought of everything. Collecting rain water for multiple purposes in their everyday life’s. Another handcrafted beauty to see.
As we worked our way around the grounds we found it interesting how hard they must have worked, probably the same as our fore fathers. Canning foods, washing their clothing, and preparing their food.
The creative and elegant manner in which things were put together was quite impressive. Not only survival but planning and implementation was of importance.
As we are finishing up our walk, we approach the “Cast Iron Cafe”. We both smiled and thought of our dinner plans we were preparing tonight. Yup, we too were using the old cast iron in our cooking.
Somethings never change over the years such as our ways of cooking . I’m sure they might have been a bit more primitive and foods were not as plentiful, but one might say it was their way of survival as well.
Making out way back to our campsite we were feeling blessed to have a roof over our head and it was time to prepare dinner.
As we sizzled our steaks on the grill in a cast iron we were glad we had the opportunity to see this historic area first hand.
I felt a bit guilty thinking we were having “filet mignon”. As we reminisced our walk, we appreciated our more convenient lifestyle of being fully clothed, having a grill to cook on and having plenty of water.
So I had my “fix” of Naked and Afraid for the week. I do know, I do not want to be a participant of this silly show. It was fun to imagine what it might have been like in both situations, being on Naked and Afraid or living as a Koreshan.
For those of you that might too want to explore and take the time to check out this beautiful, historic Koreshan State Park here you go.
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/koreshan-state-park
Again, I thank you for taking the time to read about our adventures. I also hope you too might have grown a bit learning of the different ways of living life.
Meanwhile, continue to stay safe ~
