Outdoors

By MARJ LAW

When you visit a range, what would you like to have in your bag?

The Merritt’s Mill Pond in Marianna, Jackson County, was once off limits to cave diving.

Built at the turn on the last century to drive a mill stone, the pond is a flooded valley that once had many springs. For years only a special few could dive their inundated caves, especially those of the Mill Pond known as Jackson Blue, Twin Cave and Hole-In-The-Wall.

During the mid-1980s, Parker Turner took me to the fish camp mid-pond and rented a small aluminum jonboat, which, after hours, we paddled across to the opposite side, to a land cave on the bank.

I’ve just returned from a 24 day visit to wild Africa in Kenya and Tanzania. Though we traveled through a few towns and cities (another whole article) our main objective was to view the immense diversity of African mammals and birds.  
We observed over 40 different species of mammals and by our visit’s end I had seen and become somewhat familiar with 340 birds – many spectacular.

Special to The News

Bass season has come early this year. At Renfro Lake, the Riversprings Middle School Fishing Club, including Michael Ray, Dustin Colvin and Jacob Estes, has proven so. On Feb. 18, these anglers decided to give it a try. They arrived at the lake around 10 a.m. and departed at 2 p.m. On this beautiful sunny day they caught many largemouth bass weighing 2 to 3 pounds, and several that exceeded 5 pounds.