The rain had moved on this morning so we continued with our plan to take the air boat swamp tour on Lake Panasoffkee. The lake is about 60 miles north of here on I-75 on the way to Ocala. Traffic was heavy with lots of construction just about the whole way. It took us a little longer than anticipated to get there and we arrived just as the 11:00 am boat we had reservations for was leaving the dock. There was another family of 4 who arrived just behind us, so they generated another boat and took the 6 of us out. That actually worked out pretty well as we had a lot of room on the boat to move around and take pictures. Normally there are 15-20 people on the boat and it can be a little cramped.
Lake Panasoffkee is about 3 miles long and maybe a mile wide at its widest point. The shore lines are not distinct as they are overgrown with vegetation and shallow bayou water around small mounds of vegetation and vines. There are about 7,000 alligators in the lake along with 5-6 different kinds of fish and lots of poisonous Cottonmouth snakes. We did see alligators along with turtles and several different species of birds. Thankfully, we didn't encounter any snakes as they can sometimes be aggressive and have been known to jump into boats when agitated. There are also wild pigs living along a section of the lake shore. We saw them on our last tour two years ago, but the boat captain said they moved inland due to dry conditions in the area this past year and only occasionally come to the lake anymore.
After the tour we headed back south and cut over to US 19 near the coast for a late lunch/early dinner at the Lucky Dill, a New York style delicatessen we had heard about. We were not disappointed. The food was good and pretty close to what you would expect to find back east.
We then headed back to the RV, arriving around 4:00 pm. it was a long drive, but worth the trip. Tomorrow is another sightseeing day with activities TBD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment