Watersports in Gator Country
With 3 alligator attacks in Florida in the past few weeks, you'd think sensible people would avoid freshwater lakes and rivers. I have not been sensible this week!
I've been staying in Fort McCoy, Fla., for the past week, visiting high school friends Lisa and Dan and their 3 little boys. They have a boat that they take on the various lakes in this central Florida locale. I trusted fishing-and-boating-enthusiast Dan's judgment on our chances of getting eaten by alligators, which he said were pretty slim. (And slim just took the last bus out of town.) And since I am alive to type this blog, I guess my trust was not misplaced.
I tried my hand (and legs) at waterskiing and tubing in Lake Kerr. I'm much better at the latter (because all you do is sit on a tube while the boat drags you along!). This was only my second attempt at water skiing, and as the photo shows, I still don't know how to do it. We kept the boat in the middle of the lake, far from the grasses and trees alligators tend to frequent.
We also took a sunset cruise of the Silver River, which leads into Silver Springs. This tourist attraction is in Ocala proper, and used to be the home of flamboyant water ski shows and ... monkeys. We didn't see any monkeys, but I'm told they live in the trees surrounding the river and spring. I did see an alligator sunning itself on a log, egrets, herons, loads of fish, and many many bugs. (The photo of me hiding in my gray sweatshirt shows how I tried to avoid them.) We deftly avoided the 3 or 4 alligators we saw floating like dark logs near the banks of the river.
The payoff for the hour-long foray thru the alligator- and insect-ridden river was the clear blue waters of Silver Springs, through which we saw fish such as garr and "cleaners," which basically act as vacuum cleaners. We glimpsed the bottom of the spring, from which fresh water bubbles up from the Earth. Hence, Silver "Springs." Another visual treat were the hundreds of birds roosting in the trees as the sun set. They nervously flew about as our boat's motor came into earshot, but settled down again to "pose" for some photos.
My time in this part of the state has definitely fed the nature-loving part of my soul!
I've been staying in Fort McCoy, Fla., for the past week, visiting high school friends Lisa and Dan and their 3 little boys. They have a boat that they take on the various lakes in this central Florida locale. I trusted fishing-and-boating-enthusiast Dan's judgment on our chances of getting eaten by alligators, which he said were pretty slim. (And slim just took the last bus out of town.) And since I am alive to type this blog, I guess my trust was not misplaced.
I tried my hand (and legs) at waterskiing and tubing in Lake Kerr. I'm much better at the latter (because all you do is sit on a tube while the boat drags you along!). This was only my second attempt at water skiing, and as the photo shows, I still don't know how to do it. We kept the boat in the middle of the lake, far from the grasses and trees alligators tend to frequent.
We also took a sunset cruise of the Silver River, which leads into Silver Springs. This tourist attraction is in Ocala proper, and used to be the home of flamboyant water ski shows and ... monkeys. We didn't see any monkeys, but I'm told they live in the trees surrounding the river and spring. I did see an alligator sunning itself on a log, egrets, herons, loads of fish, and many many bugs. (The photo of me hiding in my gray sweatshirt shows how I tried to avoid them.) We deftly avoided the 3 or 4 alligators we saw floating like dark logs near the banks of the river.
The payoff for the hour-long foray thru the alligator- and insect-ridden river was the clear blue waters of Silver Springs, through which we saw fish such as garr and "cleaners," which basically act as vacuum cleaners. We glimpsed the bottom of the spring, from which fresh water bubbles up from the Earth. Hence, Silver "Springs." Another visual treat were the hundreds of birds roosting in the trees as the sun set. They nervously flew about as our boat's motor came into earshot, but settled down again to "pose" for some photos.
My time in this part of the state has definitely fed the nature-loving part of my soul!
posted by Danielle P at 9:49 AM
1 Comments:
Y'know, I'm of the opinion that, if a person is eaten by a gator, s/he shouldn't have been lounging on its dinner plate. To a hungry gator (and aren't they all?), a person isn't something to be "attacked"; s/he's just lunch.
You'll never see a story in the news entitled, "Man Attacks Sandwich!"
I prob'ly shouldn't say this, but here's how I think: when I read the news that the woman had been eaten by a gator while jogging, my first thought (admittedly, these are usually sick, criminal or wrong) was, "Apparently, she was not jogging fast enough". That, or in the wrong direction. Jog away from the gator, not toward the gator. I believe that's on page one of Look Out! Here Comes A Gator!
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