Grant's Hols Sept/Oct 2014 - Day 10 - Airboat

[grant_w]

<--- Day 9 - Animal Kingdom

Day 10 and one of the highlights of our trip on the last trip - the airboat ride. Last time we went with Aquatic Adventures but unfortunately they aren't trading any more so we had to find another company to go with. We don't want one of the large boats that just whizz about on the water, we wanted a small, intimate trip and after a lot of research on this site we decided to go with Spirit of the Swamp. We followed the satnav to the meeting place, a small park south of Kissimmee which we found very easily and saw the lady waiting for us in the car park. All that's there is a small kids park, the boat ramp and some toilets. We were a little early so we had to wait for the boats to come back from the 9:00 trip. We were told who's boat we would be on when they came in. When they arrived we were seated on the boat with another couple, making it 5 on our boat. The couple had the front 2 seats, me and Nina had the middle row and Stuart sat at the back next to the driver/pilot/whatever they are called on an airboat . We all had plenty of room. We were shown all of the safety procedures and how to work the headsets so we could all hear each other over the loud engine.

We set off down the inlet and out into the huge lake and it wasn't long before we spotted some Bald Eagles in the trees, the sun was behind them unfortunately so it didn't make for a good photo. Then we spotted our first gator, not particularly big but it was a wild gator nonetheless



There are herons and egrets of various types all over the place, some play chicken with the boat and only fly away at the last minute



We also saw a couple of the rare Snail Kites



As we were crashing through the reeds we picked up a few stowaways on the trip from time to time, this little fella joined us for part of the trip and sat on the front railing of the boat



Some came even closer



We saw a monster gator out in the lake, but it was within a restricted area and we were unable to get close enough to it to take decent photos but it was HUGE. We did see a few others later in the trip, and a group of babies too. Mum was nearby keeping a watch on them so we tried not to disturb them too much.





While we were out in the middle of nowhere (it seemed) a lovely photo spot had been scouted out and we got a nice photo of all of us



It seemed like we had been out on the water for way longer than the 90 minute trip, on the way back in the 2 Bald Eagles were now soaring up high and looked great against the blue sky. A lovely end to an amazing trip

Day 11 - Busch Gardens & Ice Hockey --->

[beck_loz]

Great pictures x