Another warm day in sunny Florida, seems they have got their act together weather wise for the next few days. Today we headed out to Captain Fred’s for an air boat ride. For those who don’t know an air boat is a flat bottomed boat with a bl**dy great aircraft propeller mounted on a V8 engine at the back
These beasts can operate in only a few inches of water, and happily go through grass and weeds; but they are NOISY, luckily we got a good set of ear defenders issued to us. We set off down a small channel that led out into a 5500 acre lake, all was sedate but when we got to the lake he opened her up, the noise and speed rose and we were skimming across the lakes surface. This was all well and good for a few minutes, but then the novelty wore off, if we were going to spend the next 90 minutes driving over the lake, boredom would set in!
Luckily the skipper felt the same way, and we headed right into the swampy / grassy areas where the water was about 6″ deep, or less. The advantage of the air boat is there is nothing under the boat to worry about. We saw a couple of smallish ‘gators, and an abundance of wild life, including 2 bald eagles sitting atop a tree. The boat stopped, and those who wanted a chance to drive were allowed to do so. Couldn’t refuse an offer like that! It’s a little weird to drive, the throttle is on the floor like a car, and directional control is done by using a metal rod on the left side of the driver, push it forward to turn right and back to turn left….. there are no brakes!!
Having survived that we went int a back channel, really isolated from everything, down here we saw a few more ‘gators and a variety of tree life, including mistletoe, which appears to be a bush growing high up within a tree. We continued around the lake, and found an area where there were a whole group of baby ‘gators and mum. There were probably 75 – 100 of them all over the place, there were two groups of babies there this years and last years, mum only tolerates 2 groups in the family unit, when a new batch arrive the eldest are kicked out to fen for themselves. Nearly 2 hours into our 90 minute trip we arrived back at the base! An excellent trip.
At the base they had some baby ‘gators
The one I’m holding is about 5 months old, and the blurred one in front about 18 months old