Cocoa Mole Crabs

That doesn't sound very appetizing, does it?

We had a great trip to Cocoa Beach, arriving around 8 PM on Friday. The trip down was long...we had smooth sailing until we got near Orangeburg, South Carolina on I-26, where the traffic suddenly stopped. It took a long while to get around the obstruction, which turned out to be a car that had burned up on the edge of the freeway.

We finally got to I-95 for the last leg of the trip, and that's when the real trouble started. For almost 300 miles, we were in stop and go traffic. Mile after mile through South Carolina, and the traffic never let up. When we hit the Georgia state line, things finally broke out. But not for long. We ran into a construction zone and continued the stop and go driving until we finally hit the Florida state line. The remaining 200 miles or so were a breeze, but it took us every bit of 16 hours to arrive at our destination, about 2 hours longer than it should have taken.

The weather was ideal, with Cocoa Beach having a record high of 81 on the day we arrived. Every day was sunny and pleasant.

But back to the mole crabs. If you've ever walked along the beach in Florida, you've probably noticed the little holes that form in the sand after the waves recede. Those little holes are caused by mole crabs, also known as sand fleas. I managed to film some of them as they burrowed into the sand, and here is one of the better examples. This one must have been intent on moving, as he stayed on the surface until a wave came in and moved him along the beach.

You really have to watch for them, and the larger ones that are used as bait by the surf casters are even harder to spot. Their shells look exactly like rippled sand, and they burrow into the sand so deftly that they are nearly impossible to spot. That's why you won't see any here.

See next post for the sights and sounds of Cocoa Beach...