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Published: February 18th 2007
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Manatee
Hanging with the Manatees. This is my first experience with Manatees. They are so peaceful and playful. These animals are awesome! 2/1/07
Left Clearwater Beach after working on my travel blog for a while in the morning. Decided to stop at Jose’s one more time as I had really enjoyed the conversation with the people there and the food was good as well. After that, headed for a camping area in the Crystal River area. This is the place where you can swim with the manatees. Didn’t really find a place their so continued on to Manatee Springs State Park. Made it to Manatee Springs about 6:00, which is their closing time. I was lucky and they gave me a spot in their parking lot for $8.56. This is a great park! They have a spring that puts out 71 deg water year round. They have a swimming area, where the spring surfaces. They also have cave diving in this area, which is cool but not for me. At least not for me at this point in my life. According to the maps there are 5 miles of caves to explore in this area.
That night it probably rained 5 inches where I was at. One bolt of lightening hit near the restrooms where I was brushing my teeth at the
Big Boys
Manatees are big animals! time. I nearly dropped my toothbrush. I slept pretty well that night as the rain stopped around 11:00.
2/2/07
The next morning I got up around 7:30 and headed down to the boardwalk to see if I could see the manatees, which swim in the area of the spring. I talked to a Park volunteer and he said he was giving a canoe tour this morning. I asked if he had an extra canoe as I would like to go along. He didn’t, but a person going on the tour had an extra kayak so I got to go. The tour guide, Stan, was extremely into the manatee cause, which I soon learned why. At first we didn’t see any manatees. The best we could muster was a river otter. Stan decided to head back to our launch point and as we were going in we saw two manatees. One manatee surfaced right by my boat for a breath. They were very curious and would swim under the boats just a few feet below the surface. They occasionally bumped the boats. They are probably the most peaceful animal I have ever seen. It was almost like a religious experience.
Kayaker?
Definitely not. Just trying to keep this thing upright! Stan had said earlier in the day manatees are closest genetically to African Elephants, which seemed a little surprising to me, but they definitely resemble them in size. Stan also said they have no predators. I guess the Gators do not like Manatee. Manatees eat river grasses. The manatees left after a few minutes and we paddled in. As we paddled in we saw three more manatees. They swam passed us. Stan was adamant about not having paddles in the water, while the manatees were close. He wanted us to view the manatees in their natural state. They are very curious animals and had we put our paddles in the water their was a good chance they would have come over to us. Even though I would have enjoyed that I fully respect not bothering them. This was a great experience. I love the manatees!
I went for a swim in the Spring and took some pictures. I waited for another person to arrive at the swimming hole as I can not see a thing without my glasses and whenever your in Florida waters there are always the chance of Gators. Gators obviously however are very uncommon in the
Kayaking Crew
The guy to the left let me use his extra kayak and the guy on the right was our guide. area of the Spring.
I went into Chiefland, the nearest town to get my hair cut and I wanted to see about getting a 12V accessory outlet installed in my shell. I found a place to do it for $20. I was pleasantly surprised at the inexpensive cost. The rest of the day I messed around riding my bike knowing that nothing that would happen the rest of the day would top my manatee experience! The bike trails in this area are in pretty good shape, but the scenery was pretty consistent in the woods I rode through so I got a little bored with it. I probably road around 6 miles, but some of it was a little tough to ride.
Their was an enormous RV parked in the parking lot near me that night. Their were no camp sites large enough to accommodate this monstrosity so they put him there. I am not sure why he left home as that thing is as big as my house. He was pulling an Audi and atv in an enclosed trailer which was open at the time. Some people just have too much money these days. A couple different
Manatee Springs
This spring puts out a consistent 71 deg. water. The only place you can get water outdoors that temperature is in Key West. Nice swimming. people walking by commented on the size of that thing in a condescending manner. The super-sized RV then ran their generator or engine for a long time. As I went into town to find wifi access I mentioned the the noisey RV to the the park person on duty. The lady said they are not supposed to be running anything. She said the park ranger will have them turn it off. It really takes away from the ambiance when you have something like that running right next to you in a park. The park ranger lady at the station also commented how ludicrous that rv is.
I found a Best Western and sat in their lobby for about 3 hours working on my blog. They were saying there were some really bad tornados that touched down last night just south of Manatee Springs State Park. I was lucky. When I arrived back at the camp site everything was quiet. I slept well that night!
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