The internet here is about as reliable us using 2 tin cans and a length of string to communicate. It was down totally all day Sunday. My apologies to Mum who apparently waited up all night for the non-existent episode of the blog 🙂
Sunday was Manatee Festival day in the local town of Crystal River. Festival is evidently defined by closing off the main streets in the town and charging to enter them. Once in side there was a whole slew of street vendors doing their thing. What I found more interesting was watching the people who attended, without wishing to be done for slander they appeared to range from the dungaree wearing trailer park dwellers to the wannabee upper class residents of the city.
There were dogs everywhere, some normal but a large majority of the smaller dogs, in particular yorkies were dressed in glitter coats, hats and sunglasses 🙁
The main reason for our visit there was to go on a boat tour of the local river looking for manatee. We took about a one hour trip on a dive boat and were not disappointed. We went into a small back channel and on the way there we saw a couple of the mammals. Once in the back channel they became more populous. The channel has designated manatee quiet areas where no humans or boats are allowed in, however we could see into these areas and they were full of the mammals. The channel itself also had a large population that were easily seen from the boats, which is not surprising considering they are around 10ft in length and weigh up to 3500lbs. The days animal viewing was rounded out by a couple of red tailed hawks giving a flying display above the crowds.
Manatee