I visited the beautiful Cypress Gardens with my son’s school class today.
While out in the swamp, not only was I struck by the beauty of the place, but also by how many alligators we saw.
That got me thinking about kayaking with gators — and how there are some great stories about wildlife encounters. (My own best gator story has to do with discovering why a certain vegetation is called “Gator Weed.” Let’s just say both the gator and I aged a bit at that moment of discovery.)
Anyone want to share a story with the rest of us?
David A.
Tags: alligators, Cypress Gardens, folbot, folbots, folding kayak, folding kayaks, gators, kayak, kayaks, the front
May 11, 2009 at 3:32 pm |
Haven’t run across any gators while kayaking yet, as I’ve only done so in salt water since I’ve been here in FL. Plenty of sightings of Gators while hiking or on airboats, but so far only manatees and dolphins while paddling.
May 12, 2009 at 12:21 pm |
I’ve had a canoe almost flipped by a gator suddenly diving under but I’d been pretty stupid trying to get as close as I could for photos.
May 13, 2009 at 11:35 am |
I wasn’t thinking about canoe stories with Gators, and I did have one of those. My first time seeing alligators, actually. I’ve since moved to Florida, so I see them all the time now, being that we hang out in parks most of the time.
I posted the story on my blog, since it’s kind of long. I am trying to get some of these stories down before my mind goes the rest of the way
http://nomadicblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/paddling-with-gators/
May 16, 2009 at 10:49 pm |
About 25 years ago we took our four year old son to the Florida Everglades National Park. We got to go on a group canoe trip with one of the park naturalist for a day. There were 6 canoes and many of our fellow tourist were elderly. Our son was in the center of our canoe facing backwards. The naturalist was explaining something when suddenly my son exclaimed suddenly, “Mama, Mama, the alligator ate the duck!” We had indeed seen ducks and alligators that day but there were also many Annihingas. The naturalist assured my son he had seen one of these diving birds and it would come up shortly. My son folded his arms on his chest, stuck out his lower lip and said nothing. Out canoes were arranged in a circle while the guide showed us some interesting floating water plant. Suddenly in the midst of the circle a 4 foot alligator with a coot [small black duck] in it’s mouth rose to the surface with lots of wing splashing on the ducks part and head wagging on the alligators. One of the elderly ladies somehow got out of her canoe and ended up on a nearby boardwalk. I don’t know if she walked on the water or not, but I can still hear my son saying, “See……I TOLD YOU the alligator ate that duck!”