It has been a very busy couple of days in central Florida.
Yesterday, having bought a motor home we now felt the need to buy a small, cheap car to tow behind. As we desired to flat tow, rather than put a car on a trailer or on a dolly, this greatly reduced the choice we had. With only a day to buy a car there was not much time for shopping around so we ended up with a bit of a beaten up old Jeep – but it is only for travelling around when we are parked up- it should do the job.
Today it was time to forget about motor homes and cars because we had a special treat planned; a snorkel trip down the Homosassa River to swim with the manatees. The only problem for us was that the boat left at 6.00am from Homosassa Springs and we were 65 miles away!!! So our alarms we set for 3:30 am and by 4 we were on the road ( I would being lying if I said we were bright eyed and bushy tailed). Still in darkness we arrived at the shop where the tours are run from at 5:30am – with the promise of coffee and doughnuts. This turned out to be disappointing as they only had caffeinated coffee and about a dozen doughnut balls – at least this might have made putting on our wet suits somewhat easier ( I think not!!).
So at 6:00am we set out and as well as being still dark there was thick fog hanging over the river. After an hour we reached the spring of the Homosassa River, where the waters are 72degrees all year round. This sounds warm, but is still on the chilly side when you’re planning to be in the water for an hour or so; the wet suits are most welcome if not entirely flattering. This is apparently the best season for seeing Manatees as the don’t like cold water and as the Gulf of Mexico cools they swim upstream of these rivers where the water is that constant 72 degree plus all year. Unfortunately for us it is unseasonally warm in the Gulf so not as many manatees as usual are there. After slowly moving the boat around we spot a manatee, Emily is the first in but panicked a bit, splashing around, which frightened off the manatee. So we all got back out and went in search of more manatees. Fortunately a couple of minutes later we found one and, carefully this time ,we got back into the water. These animals are very gentle and are quite happy having people around as long as you move slowly and don’t splash. We got within a few feet of the manatee but it was a bit sleepy and didn’t really want to play .. but still it was great to get this close to these wonderful animals. After a hour we got out the water and started to feel the cold – so one at time we squeezed into the minute toilet to change clothes.
By the time we got back it was breakfast time so we found a local café which was used by the locals and we got chatting to a couple of local fisherman. Indeed these were about the last two fishermen based out of Homosassa Springs – very much a dying industry in the area. Fortified we set out for Homosassa Springs State Park. This used to be a private zoo but has now been taken over by Florida State Parks and is used to exhibit indigenous species (with one exception a hippopotamus called Lu). We sat and watched a couple of the Ranger talks – our favourite being the manatee one where the six captive rescued manatees swim right up to be fed by the rangers. Another chance to get close to these wonderful creatures!! As well as manatees (and a hippopotamus) the zoo has some really large gators, plenty of bird life and other creatures like bears, mountain lions and bobcats. The zoo grounds are extremely beautiful and it is a great day out.
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