Manatees Springs State Park, Florida

Manatees and dugongs or sea elephants are related, that is they are the same species.  This state park is on the Suwannee River and there are manatees as well as alligators.  There are also fresh springs which pump millions of gallons of water into the river system and the water is warmish year round.  Well not that warm (22C degrees) but Andrew went in for a swim.  I hasten to add that there is a wire barrier between the swimable part -Manatee Springs) and the rest, in order to protect the humans.

There are hundreds of vultures perched on the trees all around and I took a photo of one.

Here is a dugong floating lazily by.

This is the only way we like alligators.  Packaged up for cooking - $12 per pound.  We plan to put them on the barbie.



This is a photo taken at our next stop, Silver River State Park.

Some people invited us to join their campfire where they sprinkled some magic powder on the fire and it gave out coloured flames for the next 40 minutes.  Very pretty but it actually does not look nearly as good on the photos as in real life.