Saturday, October 27th: Gatorland, the conclusion
After we finished up our late lunch at Pearl's Smokehouse, we decided to walk off all those calories on the Swamp Walk.
The swamp walk is just what you think it is: a peaceful stroll along an exceptionally well maintained boardwalk through natural (and otherwise undisturbed) swampland. As you enter, there's a warning or two for all visitors:
I can't imagine WHY anyone would choose to leave the clean and dry wooden walkway for the murky depths of a swamp inhabited by heaven-knows-what
but I'm sure there's an idiot in every crowd
. Of course, just the fact that they advertise the presence of snakes had me on full alert
..... while I have a great appreciation for all creatures great and small, I have an absurd [and quite likely unwarranted] fear of most things slithery. There would be absolutely no risk of us not following the park guidelines to a T while in this area of the park.
I have to say, it's simply GORGEOUS along the wooden boardwalk: there's something very beautiful but also hauntingly eerie about the silence of the swamp. Of course, there was an odd noise or two which reminded us that we definitely weren't alone (even if it felt unbelievably secluded) but otherwise, it was hard to keep in mind that we were just a few short miles away from a tourist mecca. This is a taste of "real Florida" in the heart of Orlando.
We walked along, hand in hand....snapping photos, admiring the vegetation (vastly different from that found in the north) and savoring the tranquility of the afternoon.
We peered into the waters along the wooden walkway, hoping to spot perhaps a small gator or another interesting creature. While we didn't see any gators, we did find a few cool bugs, several birds, and this fellow who was doing his best to hide from the human visitors:
Based on this sign, pretty sure this guy was a cottonmouth.
Gotta admit, I was freaked out and totally intrigued at the same time. I snapped a few photos and then beat a path to a safer distance away: I didn't want to invade his personal space to the point where I annoyed him into some retaliatory action
. Steve was pretty impressed that we made a snake discovery [and doesn't suffer from Ophidiophobia like I do] so he stayed to admire our new friend a little longer than I did. I was more than a tad relieved when he finally decided to put some space between them: a snake bite was not the way I wanted to conclude the first day of our vacation
.
We continued along, stopping to read all the great little signs that dotted the Swamp Walk. Their signs might be silly but they're quite informative at times, too.
Once we had completed the loop of the Swamp Walk, we continued our exploration of the balance of the park. We checked out the giant gator skeleton courtesy of the Skeletons Museum at the Icon Orlando (Orlando Eye) complex.
We spent some time visiting with the iconic white gator, Pearl, at White Gator Swamp (she's HUGE!!):
....and we stopped by to see Chester, the infamous massive alligator who was captured in Tampa some years ago in a residential subdivision after he started eating the dogs belonging to the neighborhood residents. He doesn't really play well with the other gators at the park, so he gets his own private bachelor pad:
The picture doesn't do Chester justice: his size is just incredible. I can imagine the poor pups who became his dinner were barely more than a light snack for this massive beast.
We stopped to view our Adventure Hour photo, and opted to purchase the digital image on a Gatorland USB ($20), then headed to check out the children's splash park that was, as you would expect, gator themed (albeit fairly subtly):
It was a warm day by northern standards but "cold" to most Floridians (temperatures topped out at around 76 degrees that afternoon), so the splash park was not at all busy. I would expect it would be quite the hot spot (pardon the pun) in the summer months, though!
We rounded out our Gatorland day by making the gator nursery our final stop: these little darlings were varying degrees of teeny tiny, some barely more than a couple of inches long. Such cutie patooties!
I would have loved to have taken some of them home!
A few turtles swam among them as well. Even alligators need to have friends!
We perused the gift shop for a while and enjoyed looking at all the cool stuff that they offered for sale: everything from the more unique (like some very tasty looking wine) to the more customary (clothing and stuffies).
We didn't really find anything we wanted to purchase, so eventually, we decided to call it a day and head to the car. As Steve so rightly reminded me, "we don't want to wear ourselves out on the first day".
He's a sensible guy, my Steve
.
Gatorland was definitely a hit
. A fun, low-key, entertaining day that was easy on the budget but still big on fun. Adventure Hour was the absolute highlight: hand feeding the big gators with no barriers between us was an experience we will never forget! There were a couple of other shows that we would have liked to have caught (especially the Gator Jumparoo) but unfortunately our timing just wasn't on point. That gives us a reason to go back again in a year or two....and on that visit, we'll definitely have to plan to do the Swamp Buggy ride!
We made the short drive back to SVR to kick back and relax for a bit before our much-anticipated evening plans: we had a dinner date with
@chiamarie that we had been looking forward to for weeks
.
The balance of our Saturday is next .