I mentioned a couple posts back that the primary focus of our trip was to find manatees. To prepare for this, I did a lot of research on the elusive sea cow. Manatees are seasonal mammals and inhabit the waters of Florida in the winter. They are so regular in their migration that they actually have dates. November 15 - March 31 is "manatee season" and during this window, you can see them pretty much everywhere where the water is warm, mostly natural springs.
Up the coast from Tampa a few hours is the Crystal River. The Crystal River is home to a few manatee hot spots called Three Sister's Springs and Homosassa Springs. I knew on our trip we would have a few opportunities to find manatees, but our most sure fire option had been the zoo and that was a total bust. Needless to say, I was a little uptight as we travelled up, basically Redwood Road (lots of stop lights, small businesses and languages other than English) towards Three Sister's Springs. It was, after all, the last day of the season.
On the drive up, near to our destination, we saw a giant manatee sculpture at a building called the Homosassa Wildlife Reserve. Right then a light bulb hit me and I remembered that when I had asked at the zoo where their manatees were, they told me that they were at this place. So, regardless of how Three Sister's panned out, I knew we had one more shot.
Phew.
We got to the visitor center at Three Sister's Springs with a little bit of bad news. In January, they had 400 manatees. The week before we were there they had about 40. Today, they had a report that there were three, but no guarantee that those three would still be there.
Oh no!
We decided to buy the tickets and ride the trolley anyway and I was so sad on the ride over because I was disappointing my kids and myself. But, we all must soldier on. We got off the trolley and onto the boardwalk to walk around the most beautiful springs. Crystal clear blue water, beautiful tropical trees and birds, it was really cool. Because it was the last day, the springs were not crowded, only a handful of people and some swimmers and snorkelers in the water.
But, guess what! The three manatees were still there - a mother and calf and a big guy down the path a little. Oh victory! The glare on the water was bad and without my polarized glasses, they were incredibly hard to see, but they were there and pretty magical and strange looking.
We just watched them for a while...Elliott and I timing the breathing to see their noses and begging them to come closer. They didn't. But, it was still pretty cool,
We got back on the trolley, back to the car, found some excellent cheese steaks in literally the middle of nowhere (go figure) and then headed back to Homosassa Springs to try and find a few more. Of course, we were running late and barely made it to the Nature Reserve in time but man alive, it was worth it.
This nature reserve felt like a land before time. Really, it did. Or, maybe like we were on the set of Jurassic Park and were going to get attacked by raptors. It was green and lush and full of injured animals that could not be released back into the wild: black bears, eagles, red wolf, Florida panther, bob cats, alligators who were missing legs, vultures and other crazy birds, a 58 year old hippo named Lou and manatees. The 2 zoo manatees were there and 2 others who are permanent members of the reserve AND huge - like 12 feet long. We were able to watched them and it was just the coolest. On of the best parts of our trip and I was so glad I remembered what they'd told me at the zoo.
We ended the day with tacos and an outlet mall, because Ross, because Banana Republic.
It was a great day!
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