Back to First Page | Continued: ORLANDO AND THE MANATEES |
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Back to First Page | Continued: ORLANDO AND THE MANATEES |
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After the Everglades we drove back up to Orlando to fly home and stayed at a motel in Kissimmee for two nights. We had two things left on our list: to see Universal Studios and, if possible, to see a manatee. The manatees are a species of marine mammals, generally similar in appearance to the walrus, weighing about three tons as adults. They are vegetarian and quite timid, and have few natural enemies. For a time their numbers were being dessimated by injuries from boat propellors, pollution and destruction of habitat, but in the last ten years the Florida National Park Authority has managed to expand their numbers from about 1500 to about 3000 by very strict protection and environmental management. Every year, when the ocean becomes cool, the manatees swim up-river for the warmth of the inland waterways. Blue Springs Park just north of Orlando is rumored to be a good place to see them in late winter/early spring, but with only a day and a half left we thought our chances of seeing any were pretty remote so we spent our last full day at Universal Studios. |
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Universal Studios is a truly wonderful place if you are at all interested in cinema. As a lover of science fiction and robotics I was especially impressed by the Terminator 3D (plus live action) feature, as well as the Back to the Future ride, which is in reality a large flight-simulator married-up to a wrap-around image-projection system to create the sensation of (crazy) flying. The King Kong ride and the ET ride are not to be missed either. In fact everything is simply superbly well done. An essential port of call for anyone visiting Orlando, and easily worth two days (which is more than we had available). |
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After our visit to Universal we had our last proper meal in America and went to bed. The following day we had to return the hire-car and fly from Sanford Airport at about 3.00 pm. We packed early in the morning and headed for Blue Springs, not really expecting to see anything, and not too bothered, as our holiday up to this point had been extremely good. The park itself was a very beautiful place, nature trails through a forest and wooden walkways along the course of a river, culminating in a 100-foot deep natural spring that was its source. We were soon swimming in the river, accompanied by a couple of sleepy alligators, but thought it pretty unlikely that we would see a manatee, when suddenly... there were three! It was a group of three young manatees, grazing quietly on the opposite bank of the river, at a place where swimming was not allowed. We could only see them in the distance but that was fine, our very last aim for the holiday had been realized. We took a few pictures, shouted our goodbye to the manatees, and left for the airport and cold, grey London. |
The picture that we might have got (from a postcard). |
The picture that we actually did get! |
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Our general feeling about the holiday was that we had had a very good time and done practically all of the things we had wanted to do. With regard to Florida, it is not initially a beautiful place, being very flat and commercially overdeveloped around Orlando, Miami and much of the east coast. The interior, the Everglades and the rest of the coast, however, soon win you over, and there is an enormous amount of interest for the nature-lover. Camping in the National Parks is no problem and all park facilities are very good. The diving is better than the Mediterranean but not as good as the Red Sea, and the water temperature never drops below 70F, so a northern European is unlikely to need a wet-suit at any time of the year. It is a relatively expensive place to hire equipment or to go on guided dives, but the general technical standard and safety standard is very high. The local people are used to tourists and very welcoming. Food, accommodation and car-hire are all reasonably cheap, cheaper than Europe or the UK. I would have no hesitation in recommending Florida for almost any type of holiday, the huge diversity of theme-parks around Orlando making it ideal for people with children (of practically any age). |