We next went in search of Manatees. We went to Old Town, FL for a few days and stayed at a small but quaint RV Park. We left DeFuniak Springs on the 5th in a driving rainstorm that followed us all the way to Old Town. Luckily, it had let up some when we arrived. The approach was narrow and through several trees. The Park manager led us to our site and we set up.
We made it just in time. The clouds opened up again and it rained for several more hours. The next day was bright and sunny. We took a road trip to Manatee Springs to see if there were any manatees there. There is a very nice State Park with a great walking trail. There we came across the water springs from the town namesake. A massive amount of water bubbles up from this spring daily and forms in a large pool. During the summer, it is a popular swimming hole for the local human population. A short walk down the boardwalk that follows the spring to the Suwannee River led us to our first manatee encounter! And yes, that is the river made famous by Stephen Foster. You know the one... “Way down upon the Suwannee River...” Bet you’re humming it right now!! Here we could see two of them, lounging in the water. Quite spectacular.
The whole area around Old Town is surrounded by very nice, paved bike paths. You can literally bike from Old Town to Manatee Springs and beyond. We didn’t go that far, but we did spend a morning biking along the path and enjoying the surrounding countryside. The path meanders beside farms and country residences and is really quite attractive. We also discovered another small problem with the motorhome. It seems that the force of driving rain and moving 60 mph down the highway allows some of the water to be thrown from the roadway into our storage bays! We spent the better part of a day unloading most of the bays and drying them out. We’ll be having that looked at in the near future, but for now, we took the opportunity to clean and re-organize the bay storage. We also found a few things that we had forgotten that we had! Amazing how that works!!
Our next destination was just a short way down the highway. We headed to Crystal River. Now, as some of you may know (or be experiencing), the deep South is in the grip of some of the coldest temps on record. Even in Florida, they have had repeated overnights of below freezing temps. Right now, a massive winter storm is dumping snow and ice in places where we stayed just a scant few weeks ago. We can’t seem to escape the freezing temperatures this year, so we keep heading farther south. Anyway, I digress. We came to Crystal Rive for one reason--to SWIM with the manatees. Now you may have seen some videos of people riding on the manatees or chasing them around just to touch them. Many well-meaning folks point to these videos and scream “Foul” and think that you should only see the manatee in an aquarium. On the other hand, I have been impressed by the Florida Fish and Game folks and the local tour operators. They allow nothing of the kind to happen. We arrived for our trip with River Ventures at 6 am. We signed the usual release forms and then were shown a video outlining what we could and couldn’t do in the presence of the manatees. You do not approach them, they must come to you. You may pet them, but only use one hand. You may not follow them or corner them in hopes that they swim to you. You float on top of the water, there is no diving allowed to get to them. If they are on the bottom, you leave them alone. There are areas where humans may not enter, the manatees can go there if they want to get away from things. You are not allowed to feed the manatees. Only pet them. The manatees, by nature, are very gentle and curious creatures. I was struck by the intelligence you could see in their eyes. Anyway, we took a short boat ride to an area and got in the river. (We were given wet suits to help keep us warm in the cool water.)
The initial visibility was fairly bad, even though it was the first group of the morning. I was just floating along when I felt someone bump me in the side. Thinking it was Barb, I turned to see what she wanted and came face to face with a manatee! He looked right into my eyes and as I stroked his head, he rolled over in order to get a tummy rub. Unbelievable!!
We next swam up a small channel into an area where a natural spring flows. Here the water is a constant 72 degrees--the main reason you find manatees here in the winter in such large numbers. In the approach up the channel, we swam over dozens of manatees. Some small, some huge, but all just lounging. When we reached the spring pool, there were more manatees than I could count. You just floated and they came from everywhere. One nibbled on my ankle (no teeth, doesn’t hurt, kinda tickled in fact). Another youngster would catch your eye, swim up and kiss you, then drift back and want his head rubbed.
While rubbing, he rolled over and got the expected belly rub. He repeated this with me for quite some time. Always getting my attention first via eye contact. Again, amazing experience. At one point I had three manatees surrounding me and one swimming underneath me between my legs.
One of them would roll over for the tummy rub, then would position your hand with his flipper so you could rub just the right spot. If you tried to move your hand, he would gently but firmly pull it back to where he wanted it.
We spent two hours with these magnificent creatures. We interacted with them in a safe and non-obtrusive way. They sought out our company, and we were glad to share our time. Well worth the time if you ever have the chance. Don’t think twice, just do it!!
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