Silver Springs State Park, Silver Springs, Florida
Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. ~ Psalm 148:13
I was so close to a full recovery today! Until I was enticed to eat a big whopping bowl of very tasty orange sherbet.
It’s 75 and sunny and wanting to take advantage of the great weather, Blaine found us a different set-in spot for kayaking today. We drove to a boat launch just upstream from where the Silver River and the Ocklawaha Rivers meet. The goal today? Paddle upstream to the campground boat launch where we started yesterday, get out for lunch and a potty break (there’s an outhouse there), and float back to the Jeep. Total distance? 3.5 miles one way. A little further than yesterday, but we felt pretty good after a good night’s sleep, so we were confident.
However. (There always seems to be a ‘however’ in these adventure stories I tell . . . )
We didn’t realize that this portion of the river is more narrow than where we were yesterday. Know what that means? That means a stronger current, as the water is forced into a smaller space. (For those of you who took a moment to guess, were you right?) And a stronger current means – – – you have to paddle harder to make any progress.
Fortunately, we have this new sleeker model and it glides much better than our former one. But we still had to work harder than yesterday. And although we were rested and felt pretty good, we were still starting out more fatigued than yesterday.
Yeah, right. Like we need to worry about that . . .
This is posted at the boat launch.
Before we get to the Silver River, we have to paddle a short canal.
When we first noticed this cloud, there was a rainbow with it!
By the time I was ready for a picture, the rainbow was gone. Just that quick! : (
Now we’re entering the actual Park.
See the turbulence in the water and the narrow passage?
After the first mile, (there are markers along the river) I informed Blaine that I didn’t know if I could make it the full three-and-a-half miles. He said okay but I’m sure he really wasn’t. But I pressed on, and not much further, the shoreline widened and it became much easier.
That’s the first egret we’ve seen on this river.
A Red-tailed hawk.
How in the world eagle-eye Blaine spotted this, is anyone’s guess!
But we’re glad he did!
We were right up against this log, and they didn’t move.
There goes that egret!
And right after him, dozens of ibis were right behind!
It was beautiful!
Did you know?
When an ibis hatches, it’s bill is straight. It takes about 2 weeks for it to start to curve.
Rapids!
It took us two hours to reach today’s goal. Two hours of almost constant paddling. It’s good we took pictures yesterday because it would’ve been very difficult today! But we made it! Whew!!
Lunch and break time!
We made it!
This is our lunch view!
Note the chocolate chips warming. Yum! : )
Here’s another view.
During lunch and an extended rest time, we talked about what to do next. We were disappointed that there still had been no monkey sightings. Part of our discussion included going all the way to the Silver Springs Park where the glass bottom boats are. You know, where we went yesterday. We decided we didn’t feel too bad, so we might as well at least try to go all the way. Right? It’s easier paddling here, plus there was the probability of seeing manatees again and the lure of ice cream on a warm day.
This is the Silver River.
We started at Ray Wayside, paddled upstream to the State Park Launch, and then decided to continue upstream to the Spring Head.
Ambitious of us!
This is an alternate path we decided to check out.
Mostly because we’d seen a kayak come through here yesterday.
Blaine wouldn’t let me paddle in here.
It was pretty narrow, so it was easier to steer if only one person paddled.
We spotted Moonhens in here.
We’d seen them before, but they were always too far away.
They don’t have feet like ducks. Instead, each toe has broad lobes of skin that helps them paddle.
Isn’t that a pretty picture?
Another manatee!
Another detour.
It was really short, but there was nothing in here.
And another manatee!
Magnificent!
We spotted this alligator swimming alongside us!
He stayed right with us for quite a while!
We kept a close eye on him, as I’m sure he did us. : )
Before we could get the ice cream though, we had to find a place to dock. They have no place to dock unless you’ve rented one of their canoes/kayaks. Otherwise, you pay a $4 docking fee. We wanted to spend our meager funds tucked into Blaine’s pocket on ice cream! Now, wouldn’t you think, with all the businesses they have there (restaurants, ice cream, shopping, etc.), they’d encourage you to stop and spend your money? I guess they figure if you want it bad enough you’ll pay the fee and walk over. Plus, I suppose it keeps people out of the way of the glass bottom boats.
But Blaine’s better than that! He found us a spot to get out right at a section of the path we walked on the other day. We stopped, I got out, then Blaine turned the kayak around and he got out while I held it in place. We pulled it out of the water and carried across the path and set it on the ground.
Then we straightened up slowly on our wobbly legs and set off carefully and at first slowly, (gotta get those joints oiled up!) in search of the ice cream shop.
These next couple of pictures are of the Spring Head.
Remember, this is the end of the line.
Now we have to head back downstream.
There was no one else in there and we each ordered the orange sherbet – mine in a bowl and Blaine’s in a waffle cone. It was really good! And we ate as we walked back to the kayak.
I ate about 1/3 of this “single scoop” before I thought to take a picture.
Can you believe how much it is?!?
On the way, I started coughing. I coughed more and harder. And more and harder. And once we got back into the kayak (albeit very ungracefully and unladylike for me!), the coughing and clearing my throat continued. I had some Ricolas with me ‘just in case’ and started dousing the wonderful orange sherbet flavor on my tongue with those, but I could already feel the inflammation taking root once again. Argh!!
You know, sin is just like that. The enticement of something wonderful that you enjoy immensely, and then the consequences hit and you pay the price. . . .
We were getting really restless in that kayak. Everything was hurting. And even though the ride back was downstream instead of up, we were anxious to get back. Ten-point-eight miles, and 7 hours in a kayak is a bit too much! Especially when half of it is upstream!
We were still on the lookout for critters though! And we spotted quite a few, including a manatee again, but he didn’t really want to play with us, so we moved on but not until he surfaced right beside our boat! Another cool manatee moment!
And there’s our friendly manatee! The same one as before (see the scar?)
Just look how close!
The white marks are scars from run-ins with boat propellers. : (
He’s so close, you can spot the little hairs on his back!
We were disappointed we had not seen the monkeys that everyone talked and asked about. But we couldn’t complain. We’d been blessed with sooooo much already!
As we floated downstream, there were fewer and fewer people and it wasn’t long before we were the only ones on the water, which was kind of a strange feeling.
And then suddenly, Blaine got really excited back there! I didn’t know what was going on, until he was eventually able to verbalize coherently that there was a monkey on the shore!
And lo and behold there was!
But just one. By the time I spotted him, he was climbing up in a tree to eat whatever seed pods or berries that were growing on it.
There he is!!!!
Our first look at a Rhesus Monkey!
(well mine anyway)
You will now have to endure a myriad of monkey pictures and videos. : )
Blaine had to find us a spot to anchor as best we could so we could watch and enjoy. We couldn’t stay in the middle of the river because we were now in the place where the current was stronger and we’d keep drifting on down. And we had to keep a decent distance away because we’d heard they could get into your boat. Sounds okay, but we’d also heard they could turn very aggressive. Seemed to me like it would be similar to inviting an alligator in. No thank you very much!
So we sat and we watched and suddenly nothing hurt anymore. 😊
We were just leaving our docked area when there was this great commotion and monkeys could be seen and heard barreling towards us! It was scary! Even though we were in the water near the middle of the river by now.
Suddenly – that monkey we’d been watching took a flying leap from the tree right out over the bow of our boat, arms and legs spread wide and did a belly smack in the water on our right!
We turned left and saw this really angry monkey screaming and now in the tree our “friend” had vacated, and all the other monkeys were screaming as well and running around the trees and ground!
We turned right again, and our friend was swimming to shore. He made it, and crawled out of the water and hid behind a tree. We kept an eye on the situation, but we also wanted to take advantage of a one-in-a-lifetime event, so Blaine used his adrenaline rush and paddled hard to keep us in place in the middle of the river where we could watch, and the camera on my phone went crazy snapping pictures.
Wow!! What an experience! Thanks for answered prayer, Father! Above and beyond our expectations!
Just look at our poor little soaking wet, unwanted friend peeking out around the tree.
Don’t you feel sorry for him?
Eventually, the adrenaline wore off and Blaine’s arms gave out, so we continued reluctantly downstream, with me paddling mostly alone for a while, while he rested. It wasn’t difficult since we were traveling in a current of 3-4mph.
These are Rhesus Macaque monkeys that are native to Asia. They were brought here in 1938 to add to the Silver Springs tourist attraction. They were sort of contained because for whatever reason, no one thought the monkeys could swim. They can. And they did. And they left and moved into the woods along the river. They believe there are about 300 of them in the State Park now, but some have even left the Park and have migrated to other areas. There are plans in the making to rid the state of Florida of these invasive, non-native critters. Again. Here’s their story as per National Geographic:
Florida’s primate problem began in 1938 when a tour boat operator known as “Colonel Tooey” released six rhesus macaques onto a small island within what is now the state park. He procured the monkeys from a primate dealer in New York City with the intention to create a Tarzan-themed attraction on the island, but his plans quickly unraveled.
Unbeknownst to Tooey, rhesus macaques are strong swimmers. Within hours of arriving on the island, the pink-faced monkeys began escaping into the woods. Six more macaques were brought in to replace them, but they escaped as well. By the 1980s, hundreds had spread out across the 5,000-acre park.
Between 1984 and 2012, Florida wildlife officials authorized the removal of more than 1,000 monkeys in an effort to slow population growth and prevent conflict with humans. Officials also sterilized 20 female macaques during that time.
But our lonely adventure was not over yet because we had two more sightings of monkeys – on either side of the river (we’d thought they were only on the one side) – and we also spotted two different otters!
The next two pictures are of our second encounter.
There were quite a few here as well.
They were walking single-file through the mucky ground and across this fallen tree.
See the baby under the mom?
The moon is out, and yet, it really is this dark now.
Our third and final encounter.
This was the only one we could really see, but there was a lot of commotion in the woods. : )
That’s an otter.
We followed it to the canal where we had to turn.
We lost him after that.
What a day! And thank God for Blaine’s eagle eyes, because I never would’ve seen that first monkey (or the hawk)! And for perfect timing to watch the drama unfold!
We returned to the campground just before lock-down, which is a good thing as otherwise, Blaine would’ve been sleeping outside in the kayak.
Not really, they gave us a code to get past the locked gate. 😊
Blaine mentioned earlier that he’d be okay if we didn’t have dinner till 7pm tonight. Well, he was just about right. By the time we got home, the grilled chicken was out, and warmed up Santa Fe Soup was in. We were just too tired to cook anything.
By 8pm, we were both ready for bed, but forced ourselves to stay awake until 9:30 so we wouldn’t be up at 3 or 4.
And we were sooo grateful that we hadn’t had to carry that boat further than across the small parking lot!