An Ecosafari

Posted on February 27, 2012February 27, 2012 by Dusty Roads

I waved goodbye to Gatorland and headed out to find St. Cloud. As I pulled out of the parking lot my cell phone rang. It was Joe. He wanted to know where I was and where I was going. He had seen a news clip in the morning about a Manatee Festival and since I hadn’t seen any manatees at Weekee Wachi State Park, he thought I might be interested. I thanked him and told him I would take it under advisement. Right then I was heading for St. Cloud for an EcoSafari.

I’m new to GPS so I didn’t know where to find the eta. If I’d known I might have been prepared for the length of the drive. Orlando to St. Cloud wasn’t an issue but getting through downtown St Cloud to the Eco Safari was. I drove and drove. I was supposed to be there to check in by 12:45 but that came and went and I was still driving.

I tried to call to let them know I was on my way but they didn’t have a phone listing. I looked on my receipt from the concierge…nothing thereso I even tried my cell phones 411. They couldn’t find anything either. I alternated between being nervous that I would miss out and angry that I couldn’t reach anyone. Finally I saw a sign and turned down a dirt road which eventually led into a dirt parking lot. I had made it and only about 15 minutes late.

I was supposed to check in at the restaurant. I followed the signs around the veranda to an entry at the back. Once inside a clerk in the gift shop pointed me to a closed-door at the back. I slipped in to see that everyone was watching a movie about the eco-ranch and how it came about. It was a sad story because it was created in a son’s memory. I won’t attempt to give you the whole story because I’d missed half of it but I did arrive in time to get the gist of it.

This Eco-Safari is called Forever Florida. The area consists of 4700 acres of eco-ranch and abuts a conservation area. The land is being preserved the way nature intended. The area boasts 9 distinct Florida ecosystems and an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, nearly two hundred species of birds and the endangered Florida panther. There was no telling what we would see!

After the movie we all clambered aboard a large swamp buggy for the “Coach Safari”. They also have a “Horse Safari”, Zipline, and a new Cypress Canopy Cycle. Our very personable drive was also our guide. As we headed out he pointed out the sights and explained the type of terrain and eco system we were covering.

At first it was ranch land with the Florida cattle. They have long”ish” horns. They don’t quite reach long horn status like Texas Long Horns but the curved horns still look pretty sharp. the bloodline is being preserved and can be traced back to the spanish who originally brought them. This was a theme I was to hear over and over whenever the topic of Florida Cows came up.

Right off the bat we spotted a hawk. The driver said it was a red-shouldered hawk. It was too far away for a picture but we’re off to a good start.

As we left the grounds of the working part of the ranch we saw a mucky, swampy ditch along the side of the road. In that muck we spotted turtles and alligators.

There were birds in the trees over hanging this little trickle of water. Our driver said “This is Florida and where there is water there will be alligators”.

He was very knowledgable, naming and pointing out all the birds, flowers and even the plants growing in the little ditch.

We saw several Anhinga. At one point we watched one pull its long neck in only to have it shoot out with amazing speed to snag a passing bug. It was like watching a snake strike , not a bird but I guess that’s characteristic of this species.

As we drove along we traveled from swampy to dry and into cypress groves. We saw baby alligators and even white tail deer. No Florida Panthers although we passed markers identifying Florida panther territory.

As we passed through a grassy “savannah” our sharp-eyed guide pointed out a pair of sand hill cranes. It was so hard to see them he had to stop the swamp buggy so we could watch for the motion as the cranes moved through the tall grasses.

We also passed the trail markers for the Cross Florida Greenway, a hiking trail that runs from the tip of the Florida Keys to the Panhandle. It’s to Florida like the Appalachian Trail trail is to the East Coast.

We made a stop at a cypress grove to walk a board walk.

Our guide pointed out the cypress knees that grow from the roots of the cypress trees. If these knees get damaged then the tree dies.

No one seems to know why. We could see the waterline from the floods when hurricanes go through and damage to the boardwalk. Florida is in a drought at the moment. It was very apparent once the various water lines were pointed out.

It wasn’t too much longer after we reloaded when we turned back to the ranch. It was an excellent experience. Since I’d been running so far behind I hadn’t had lunch so I ordered one of the all beef hot dogs they offered. The beef was from their cattle and the hot dogs made on their ranch. They were huge and soooo good! I don’t think I have ever tasted a hot dog that was so good. I guess fresh is best. 🙂

After lunch I wandered the grounds with the owner’s permission. Thier only advice…watch out for the alligators in the pond! As I wandered around I spotted a cat. I hadn’t seen a cat since I left mine at home but as usual during my trips at some point I will run into someone’s cat. And as is usual the cat says hello in it’s cat-ly way and lets me pet him so I can have my “kitty fix”. 🙂

Time to find my way back to Orlando.

If you go…I recommend this trip. It was fun and educational but be sure you have good directions and allow extra time to get there.

Final Images from Gatorland

Posted on February 24, 2012February 24, 2012 by Dusty Roads

There were just too many pictures to share to put them all in one post.

Here’s just a few more.

Riding on the back of an alligator.

And just hanging out.

The behaviours and interactions of the birds and the ‘gators amused and amazed me.

And finally me, doing my alligator /snake charmer impression.

Gatorland

Posted on February 22, 2012February 22, 2012 by Dusty Roads

On Saturday the sun was back out. Originally I was supposed to be attending an all day photography seminar at Busch Gardens but thanks to my budget I didn’t get the registration fee into them in time so I found myself a bit more flush but with time on my hands.

Once again I turned to my friendly concierge. They are an absolutely awesome resource. They are familiar with the area and attractions and even have discounts on tickets if you get them through the resort instead of on your own. I had already searched the internet and had some idea what I wanted to do so now I turned to them to set it all up. I handed over my credit card and gave them my available times and what I wanted to do and they handed me back the tickets and brochures and the itinerary. Couldn’t have been easier.

For the morning I wanted to go to Gatorland. I hadn’t been to a place like that in a long time..years actually…and alligator sanctuaries are big on TV right now with shows like Gator Boys and Swamp People and Operation Wild. I plugged in the coordinates and was off.

I didn’t expect to spend a lot of time at Gatorland. After all, they all look-alike except for the individual’s size but I was sure wrong. I could have spent the whole day there.

The first thing you see when you leave your car is a building with a huge mural meant to look like an old post card from Gatorland.

As you turn the corner there a big “gator head” that makes a great photo spot!

Once in you follow board walks between gator pens, big one, little ones, medium-sized ones but what really hit me was the birds!

There were a ton of them and they showed no fear.

They sat on the decks right under the alligator’s noses.

Obviously these alligators are well fed and the birds know it.

They had a small petting zoo and some parrots.

In another enclosure were white alligators.

Each enclosure had educational material posted by the exhibit. In the White Alligator section it was explaining the difference between an Albino alligator and a Leucistic Animal. This was educational for me. I knew about albinos but I had not heard of leucism. I’ll let you look it up. 🙂

In back of the pens and enclosures there was a little train.

Riding that was an additional charge but it was only a couple of dollars so I bit. It was a short ride around the grounds. the narrator pointed out more enclosures with animals like Florida cows and emus. There was a salt water enclosure for some crocodiles and well as more alligator pens. They also have a Zip Line over the farm. Keep your feet up over the alligators!

Back from the train ride I hustled back to the main enclosure for the alligator feeding show.

Here the keepers, I hesitate to call them trainers, were tossing raw meat out to the alligators. The black headed vultures were hopping up and down for scraps. One actually went right up to a big ‘gator and plucked the meat right out of its mouth.

That gator never made a move.

The the keepers tried hand feeding them, teasing them over to the side of a platform and the reaching down as the ‘gator jumped up.

Another way they encouraged the ‘gators to jump was to slide raw chickens down a rope suspended above the water. The ‘gators would swim over and then leap up and grab the chickens. Chomp chomp and it was all over.

I’m sure it sounds gruesome but it was actually pretty interesting. After that show I went back out to one of the many trails that crisscrossed the park. This area was a bird breeding area. The birds love to make their nests near the alligators because the alligators protect them from predators.

Yes they lose a chick here and there that falls out of a nest but the birds seem to feel it’s a good trade-off. It is breeding season now and the Egrets are all fledged out in their breeding plumage. Just beautiful.

By now it was almost noon and time to head to my afternoon appointment in St. Cloud. I wished I’d reserved more time so I could walk the other trails. On my way back I spotted swans and pink flamingos in a pond that seemed to be ‘gator free”.

Some really ugly birds were lined up along the railing. They were big white birds but they had heads that were black and scaly like a vulture. A passing keeper said they were storks. Wow, somehow they didn’t look like I imagined when we used to say the stork brought the baby.

Mermaids and Manatees

Posted on February 17, 2012February 17, 2012 by Dusty Roads

Day 3 dawned with overcast sky’s and light rain showers. It was tempting to just crawl back into bed and sleep-in but my time in Florida is limited so that would be a waste. I was here and opportunity only knocks once (or so “they” say). Joe was at Disney, working, so I was on my own today. I don’t mind that. In fact I told Joe before I came down that I would visit him while I was here. I wanted him to understand that he didn’t have to play host to me the whole week. I had exploring to do and I like doing a lot of that on my own at my own pace.

The concierge at my timeshare said that the cold snap they had the previous week had driven the manatees into the springs for warmth. He suggested I take a drive up to Weeki Wachee State Park. He thought there were some in that spring. Seeing a live manatee in the wild would be an awesome experience.

Weeki Wachee State Park is about an hour north of Orlando. I had my GPS and the roads were good. I drove in and out of bands of rain. It was a scenic ride once I was off the highway. I think most of the drive was on RT 50. There were orange groves both well-tended and abandoned. The well-tended groves were loaded with fruit. As many times as I have been to Florida, I had never seen orange groves so this was really neat.

The weather report said it was supposed to clear so I was hoping the sun would be out by the time I arrived.

I remember hearing about the Weeki Wachee Springs when I was much younger. They had mermaid shows and I thought that would be an awesome job to have when I grew up. I was surprised to find out that they still have those shows at the park. I thought they were a thing of the past like so many other things from the 50’s.

There are a couple of different shows. One show, Fish Tails, gives the history of the mermaids before a pageant style show is presented and the other is based on the Little Mermaid. There is also a reptile show and a boat ride with a conservationist. But I am jumping ahead. Let me walk you through my visit.

Arriving at the entrance to the Park you have a large paved parking area. The entrance is attractive with flags and sculptures of mermaids.

The ticket price includes all the “attractions”, the shows and boat ride I mentioned. Unfortunately the ranger at the window said the manatees were gone now, back out to sea, but she highly recommended the mermaid show.

I was here so I paid my admission and set about exploring.

Inside the park there were paved paths and benches and peacocks…loads of peacocks.

They were pretty but kind of dirty. They liked to sit on the benches too but they left quite large piles of calling cards if you get my drift. If you go, look before you sit.

I took the boat ride first and was surprised to be the only passenger. I guess the threat of rain had put a damper on visitors.

There was a captain and the conservationist and me. The ride is not long but we saw Ibis,

an eagle nest,

Great Blue Heron,

and a Little Blue Heron

, even a domestic Muscovy duck.

Looking into the clear water of the spring fed river I could see fish darting about through the water. They even jumped and splashed occasionally. No wonder the wading birds were hanging out.

The guide said there was an alligator that made it’s home in the spring but that it didn’t come out too much before dusk. On the previous trip down the river they saw white tail deer but they were gone when we got there. Both the captain and the guide recommended that I take a kayak down the river if I had time. Unfortunately I had missed the last trip with a pick up so I would have to come back another day to do that. (I suspect it will have to wait for another trip)

Back on shore I wanted to get some lunch but I would miss the mermaid show if I did that so I headed to the Mermaids instead.

You enter down a flight of stairs and then turn into the theatre itself. The benches are stadium style and surround a curtained wall. While waiting the history of the facility and the mermaids is shown on TV screens above the curtain. And then it was showtime.

The curtains go up and you are looking through a wall of glass like an aquarium but it’s not an aquarium. It’s really a window into the spring and there are the mermaids, young women in mermaid tails, performing synchronized swimming.

Each has a breathing tube which allows them to perform their stunts without surfacing for air. This was a traditional show like they have been doing for years here. Near the end of the show one of the “mermaids” returns from a costume change without her tail but wearing ballet shows. She hands her breathing tube to her spotter and dives to the bottom of the spring at 117 ft holding her breath. It ends with a water ballet sans tails dedicated to patriotism and the American Flag.

It certainly is different and quite enjoyable.

I skipped the reptile show in order to grab a quick lunch at the snack bar, Typical park food…hot dogs, hamburgers, fries. I was the only one there although I did see a few people wandering the grounds while I ate.

After lunch I checked out the stage where the reptile show took place and sure enough, I had missed it. The herpetologist was packing up his stage props and animals but he was willing to let me pet his alligator.

There was another mermaid show but it was getting late. I didn’t want to get stuck in Orlando Rush Hour on my return so I skipped the 2nd show and just wandered the grounds a bit more admiring the peacocks.