Lake Manatee State Park, Bradenton, Florida
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai (Sarah), “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” ~ Genesis 12:10 Here, Abram demonstrates his lack of trust in God. And once again, there are consequences to be paid, and not only by Abram, but also by innocent people. It also shows a very prideful man, only looking out for himself. I imagine he justified it by thinking he had to self-preserve in order to have the offspring God promised. How often do we justify our actions or words, rather than trust God? The other issue here, is that Scripture doesn’t ever reveal that God told Abram to go to Egypt. It seems like he made the decision on his own, despite being under God’s direction. Isn’t it wonderful how God insists on using flawed people to work His Will and His Way? People just like us!
For years we’ve heard from other campers we’ve run across about how wonderful Myakka River State Park is, and for years and multiple times during those years, Blaine’s tried his best to get us into their campground. It’s been impossible. And very frustrating. So today, we made a day of it and drove the 40-45 minutes to see this place for ourselves. It cost us $6 to get in.
They have a wilderness area that you have to get a permit to enter, because only 30 people are allowed in per day, but being as it was a Thursday, we didn’t have any trouble. After speaking with a Ranger, we decided to spend most of the day kayaking the river to a place they call Deep Hole.
But first . . .
There were a couple of other things to check out, since it was early, and the Ranger told us the alligators don’t get up until ten or eleven. 😊
We drove from the check-in (where we got our permit) to the far end of the Park, just to check it out and see what there was to see. Mostly, it was Palm trees, saw palmettos and Spanish Moss, with a few peeks at prairie areas that were hosting a handful of deer – far, far away from the road. We got a glimpse into the campground areas, and most looked like people were staying in the middle of wilderness.
I imagine it’s the same reason as the chicken . . . : )
On the way back, we stopped at a boardwalk to the lake. It was beautiful! And there were these very large creatures across the way. A guy walked up with a real camera that had a large zoom on it, so we asked him what they were. White Pelicans! Just what we were thinking!
Also on the way back, we tucked into the boat launch area and discovered, not boats, but a bevy of buzzards! They were everywhere and totally disregarded people and their cars. They were in the air, on the buildings and posts – – all around! So many in fact, the Park Service had to put up a sign. It seems that was our preview of the day, because we must have seen several hundreds of the birds by the time we left today.
I became curious, so I looked it up – you can call vultures buzzards, but you cannot call buzzards vultures. Wanna know why? Across the Atlantic, the Europeans had birds they called buzzards. They resembled hawks. When the Europeans came across the sea and landed in America and saw these birds for the first time, they didn’t know what they were because they’d never seen them before, so they went with the name that best fit what they knew. And now you know where ‘buzzards’ came from!
Then there was the canopy walk. We didn’t know exactly what this was going to be, but based on the number of cars in the parking area, we knew it was something we should check out. Pretty cool! But a much shorter walk than we were thinking.
And yes. You have to duck under that tree branch. : )
That doesn’t happen often!
A bunch had “Peru…” on them, and we had just noticed them, when this sign appeared.
At the same place, there was a walking trail (I hesitate to call any trails in Florida “hiking”. Especially after being in Rocky Mountain National Park. 😊). They had a sign up at the beginning of the ¾ mile trail that said to expect a 40-minute leisurely stroll. Our 40-minute leisurely stroll took us all of 15 minutes. Lol. Guess we don’t do leisurely very well.
Enough messing around. It’s time to hit the water. We had an 8-mile round-trip excursion ahead of us!
For most of our first four miles, I was on edge and a bit jumpy, which translated to sore muscles at the end of the day, though it took me a while to figure out that was the reason.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen so many alligators in one general area in our lives! Not even when we visited Everglades National Park. Not only were there a lot, but many were really close to us because the river was narrow. And not only that, but they wouldn’t stay on the banks like proper alligators should. They’d hear or see us coming and slide, plop, glide, into the water they went, and oftentimes right under our boat! Blaine kept trying to reassure me we were fine, and the Ranger’s voice was also in my head, “They won’t bother you.” But my psyche chose not to agree. At least I didn’t panic and jump ship.
So to those of you who think we’re crazy, you’re assessment has now been confirmed.
We’ve never seen one of those before!
We know what they are because there was a sign back at the boardwalk we were on earlier today.
Remember when we watched them at Grayton Beach a few weeks ago?
By the way, we’ve been on the river for about a mile now.
and just then, it scampered down and into the water making a big splash!
(can alligators scamper????)
We learned that a couple of years ago when someone on another river somewhere told us. : )
And we stood on our very small beach to eat, scanning the water the entire time. At least I was!
You can tell their around because you hear them before you see them. : )
Notice how little room he gave us to get by!
Yeah. It was like that, but notice, I didn’t stop taking pictures.
I wanted documentation of my untimely demise!
Blaine checked the map, and it seems there’s a lake here.
You just can’t get from the pictures how huge these birds are!
their big, webbed feet slapping the water as they went. Funny!
They’re pretty and so much fun to watch as they glide along the top of the water in pairs, scooping up bugs!
God is sooo diverse!
this just seemed like a good spot to take a picture of them.
I didn’t have to look for gators here!
We’re done with the lake and getting ready to enter the passage to Deep Hole.
Once we arrived at our destination, Deep Hole, we were completely surrounded by the giant reptiles. At least a hundred of them. How there is enough to sustain these creatures in this area is beyond us. It’s interesting to note that none of the birds were a bit concerned and often stood right beside or in the midst of those snappers.
Even though we’d read about it, and the Ranger told us.
You just can’t imagine it!
The wider section of water is the river we paddled in on. You can’t see it in the picture, so you’ll just have to imagine it – – the entire ring of water held gators on the beach. All. The. Way. Around!
Just like the above pictures!
And we were in the middle of it – – most of the time. More on that later.
So let’s talk about Deep Hole for a minute. Deep Hole is a 131’ deep sinkhole that’s filled with water. And in the dry winter months, it becomes a death trap for fish. During the wetter times, they swim easily into the bowl and live the high life in water that’s deep enough for them to evade most predators.
And then the rains stop, and the rivulet that feeds this hole gradually becomes more and more shallow, until one day, the fish find themselves trapped until the rains return and raise the river’s water level. Supposedly (I was unable to substantiate), the water in the hole has no oxygen below 20’. That means if the fish go deeper than that, they suffocate.
And they’re now surrounded by over a hundred hungry alligators, who’ve been drawn to his hole for reasons the scientists can’t figure out. I’m goin’ out on a limb here and say, easy pickins . . . 😊
A few years ago, a team of explorers/divers checked out the hole and found large amounts of decaying plant matter and an astonishing number of dead, decaying fish lying within the debris mound that begins at about 60’ down. They also discovered that the water was only 57⁰ and contained extremely high hydrogen sulfide gas. Things that would normally take only a few weeks to decay on land, most likely would take months, if not years in this sinkhole.
So that’s the science of it. The personal experience is something else entirely, and for some weird, inexplicable reason, I wasn’t at all nervous here. Even though we found ourselves completely surrounded by dozens and dozens of large (there were no small ones to be seen!) alligators. Many of whom left the safety of the banks to slide into the pool. Well, WE think they’re safer on the banks. As Blaine reminded me, THEY probably feel safer in the water.
Buzzards on the ground.
We’ll get a better picture later.
But in this case, we won, thank goodness!
so my insane husband decided to get out and try to pull us!
But the whole area was too shallow, so he had to turn us around and pull us back into Deep Hole.
I did NOT sanction this maneuver!
If you want to see it, let me know and I’ll text it to you. : )
What an incredible experience! We talked about it and decided we must’ve seen at least 200 gators all told!
The paddle back was more difficult than we’d anticipated. First of all, we were moving against the flow of the river, but we’d also developed a steering problem. Not major, but it made it more difficult to navigate the narrow, very winding passage. And of course, you had to constantly be on the lookout for those gators, and the buzzards that waited on the banks and soared overhead waiting for scraps. Yikes! When we dismantled the boat, Blaine discovered that the rudder was slightly bent. Probably from all the scraping through sand we did today.
Funny that the little ones aren’t afraid, but the big ones are. : )
There was one big scare on the way back. I took the opportunity to bend over in my seat, paddle stretched out in front of me, close my eyes and wiggle out some aches, when suddenly, I’m wet and there’s a ruckus on the left side of the boat! Evidently, we surprised an unsuspecting gator just below the surface of the water and he made a quick dive, swishing his tail to get away. Now that was scary! Of course, Blaine just laughed hysterically. . . .
We like rolling ours up and stuffing it into the back of the Jeep. : )
We drove home, ate dinner (chicken picatta, baked potato and salad – see recipe at the end if you want), and then I practiced my quick-change routine, as hot and cold flashes besieged me all evening.
That’s enough excitement to last for a day or two!
By the way, after our day today, we don’t feel like we’ve missed out by not staying at the Park. Whew!
CHICKEN PICATTA
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
½ c. flour
1 t. garlic powder
1 ½ t. paprika
½ stick butter
½ C. water
2 T. lemon juice
1 cube chicken bouillon OR 1 t. instant bouillon
Mix flour, garlic powder and paprika in a bag. Drop in chicken and shake to coat.
Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides.
Meanwhile, mix together the water, lemon juice and bouillon. Once the chicken is brown, add the liquid. Simmer for 15 minutes, turning chicken once or twice.
Serves 3
HINT: I like to add 6-8 sliced fresh mushrooms and 2-3 sliced green onions just before the liquid. It makes an already great recipe even better!