Keith and I went to Publix after a very quick breakfast to get Sophie a Birthday cake for tomorrow. We also bought her a helium balloon and some celebrity magazines, which I hope she'll enjoy reading.
As we weren't sure about the traffic on the 192 and how long it would take us to get to the offices of the airboat company, we set off very early but we were glad we did as it took us an hour and a half to do the 25 mile trip to St Cloud. The traffic was horrendous (isn't it always?) and we literally crawled along until we came to a less populated area of the busy road.
Naturally we drove right past the office and I had to do a U-turn, but as we were so early the woman in the office said we could go on the 2pm ride, instead of the 3.30pm we'd booked. It took us another 45 minutes to drive to the lake and the starting point for our ride.
By now it was raining so we had to make ponchos out of black bin liners...Sophie looked at me as if she wanted to kill me and all I could do was laugh helplessly as we cut out holes for our arms and head. I'm so glad that we never bought the photo they tried to sell us later!
As there was only the four of us, we had a private tour with Dan who was extremely knowledgeable about the lake. The water wasn't very deep (about chest height) and I was slightly alarmed that we weren't strapped in as the boat went very fast indeed! It was exhilarating, but the rain against our faces wasn't pleasant at all and I prayed that it would stop for a while, which it did.
We saw several alligators, including some tiny baby ones, and some very interesting birds, but no bald eagles, which we'd hoped for. We stopped frequently for Dan to point out various wildlife and to his amazement, and ours, we saw a squirrel swimming across the lake! We all held our breaths as he was literally swimming through alligator infested waters but he made it to the other side and disappeared triumphantly into the trees!
I felt the whole experience was quite eerie, to be honest, as the water, although not deep, was extremely dark and murky and we all knew that some very dangerous creatures lurked just below the surface. There were huge floating plants with gnarled roots that could be cooked just like potatoes, their leaves coming in handy to stop bleeding, according to Dan. I'm certain that if the weather had been better, the scenery would have been breathtaking as there wasn't a building in sight and the peace, when the airboat engine was turned off, was lovely. It was hard to believe that just a few miles down the road was the busiest holiday destination in the world.
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| Can be eaten like potatoes |
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| Cypress trees with their strange trunks |
We sped along the water and went down two narrow canals but Dan explained that alligators, like humans, hate the rain as it gets into their nostrils. If it had been hot and sunny they would have been basking on the shore and we would perhaps have seen a lot more. Despite the weather, both Keith and I enjoyed the sensation of flying over the water but I'm not sure the kids enjoyed the experience!
Back at the car we tried to dry ourselves off by putting the heating on and then stopped for a very late lunch at a Subway. By now it was raining very hard and it was difficult to imagine the brilliant blue skies of a few days ago.
We chose a different route to go back to the villa and used a couple of toll roads. By paying only a few dollars we cut our journey time by at least an hour and I think that in future we'll make more use of these roads as they certainly weren't as congested.
In the evening we had a takeaway Chinese from the restaurant near to Publix and it was bliss to stay in for the evening and have a couple of glasses of wine!
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