Happy, Happy Homosassa

When I was in Florida last winter I drove past Homosassa Springs State Park. I didn’t stop at the time as it was already quite late in the afternoon and I wanted to find a place to spend the night. I found a spot about ten miles down the road, but the next morning I didn’t feel like back-tracking to the park. So I didn’t see what it had to offer.

When I saw the sign for the park on this trip I decided there was no time like the present. The day was windy and quite cool, thus there were very few people at the park. There was plenty of room in the lot, so I parked, grabbed my camera and went inside the building.

Once inside I found out that it you park where I was, you aren’t actually at the park yet. To reach it I had to take a one mile boat ride, which was actually fairly pleasant, if a little cold, on that day. Once I reached the actual park I paid my entrance fee, got a map and went inside.

the ride into the park

The park was once privately owned and contained a small zoo. When it was taken over by the state, the powers that be decided that only animals native to the state of Florida should reside there. (The animals are ones that have been injured and can no longer survive in the wild.) However, there was also a hippo in the park when the state took over. This hippo that was very, very popular with area school children and a lot of adults too. There was so great an outcry over the plan to move him to a zoo that he was allowed to stay and is now a park “mascot” of sorts.

bobcat

Florida panther

green heron

In addition to the hippo there were a lot of varieties of birds to see, plus river otters, a bobcat, a Florida panther, various reptiles and some manatees, etc. The watercourse that runs through the park is open, so that wild manatees can come and go as they please. There is an underwater viewing area where you can walk down a few stairs and watch them swim around in front of the windows. It seemed as though they liked watching us almost as much as we enjoyed them.

stilt

spoonbill

whooping crane

There are also at least three adult manatees that are permanent residents of the park. If you are in the right spot at the right time you can watch them being fed. While I was there, employees were tossing the contents of a large (about three by four feet) box of lettuce into the water. It was amazing to watch these huge creatures suck in a large head of romaine and make it disappear in only a minute or so. They are such gentle, peaceful creatures for something so large. It was painful for me to see the deep scars on their backs from boat props. But within the confines of they park they are safe, protected.

manatees from above

feeding time

manatees

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering among the various enclosures, only leaving when it came almost time for the park to close. If you’re ever in the area, do yourself a favor and stop. It’s worth a visit.

Hangin’ in Hong Kong

I’m skipping forward to the present for the moment.   I still have three or four posts to write up for Taiwan, but i thought I’d actually write about today today!

This morning i slept in.  How’s that for excitement?  I don’t know what it is about airports, customs, immigration, dealing with baggage  (and over-weight charges…) and all that that wears me out so much, but it does.  So, this morning I slept until I felt like getting up.  Which meant that my day actually started around 11 AM by the time I had breakfast and showered, etc.

After that I went downstairs to the concierge desk and looked at tour brochures, then started talking to the most delightful young man behind the counter.  He let me know very quickly just how over-priced all the tours were and how to do it all on my own for a lot less money.  This had the added benefit of allowing me to decide how long I wish to linger at each venue.  I so adore honesty.

He gave me a map, highlighted the bus and tram routes that would take me to each place (including the bus numbers!) and told me how much each would cost so that I could have the exact change required by each method of conveyance.  I started off by going to the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Park, with plans to take the tram to Victoria Peak afterwards.

The tram dropped me about 1/2 mile from the zoo.  It wasn’t a long walk, just a very steep walk.  There are a lot of streets here that could give San Francisco a run for its money.  When you see a sign at the base of the street warning you to beware of cars rolling backwards, you know that the darn thing is steep with a capitol “S”.

Needless to say, with the high humidity and temperatures here, I was drenched with sweat by the time I got to the zoo.  But there was a nice breeze and a lot of big, shady trees, so I cooled off while lingering amongst the aviaries.

It’s not a big zoo, hardly a zoo at all, really.  A lot of beautiful birds, a mammal section that was pretty much completely primates and a reptile house that I never actually found.  I still managed to spend three hours there before I knew where they had gone.  I had lunch at the park at their “light refreshments” kiosk.  An egg and ham sandwich and a cup of very, very hot milk tea (it partially melted and deformed the little plastic spoon that came with it.  How hot is that?)  both made fresh by a little old man in the back of the kiosk as I waited and watched.  along with a snickers bar for dessert or a later pick-me-up I spent $38 HK–about $5.30 US.

Back to the birds: there were a lot of them!  I’ll add some pictures with their names.  Please keep in mind that the pictures could be better.  The wire on the cages was pretty heavy-duty and my camera kept wanting to focus on the wires rather than the birds.  When I did get it to focus on the birds, the wire became a blur over parts of their bodies.  Still, most of the pictures are quite clear.

Silver pheasant, male & female

wood duck

Malay peacock pheasant

Grey crowned crane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue crowned pigeon

 

 

 

 

 

The primates were a hoot.

Several of the cages had blue plastic barrels hanging inside from the roof.  the barrels had large openings on all sides and the primates would  pile in one at a time, or swung from the bottom while their fellow inmates got a free ride.  It literally was more fun for a barrel of monkeys.

The plant and flower part of the park was beautiful.   I’ll eventually get around to posting some of those too.

cherodendrum

cotton rose

Afterward, I headed for the tram to Victoria Peak.  Bad idea.  It’s Saturday here.  Saturday afternoon.  And the line was loooooooooong.   So very long.   After about half an hour I could see the ticket window.  Then I found out that after the ticket window (still about 20 minutes away) I would have to wait for the tram in a big hall with about 200 hundred of my closest friends (the way they were all packed in there, they would have be become “close” friends…), all sweltering in a pretty much airless space, waiting their turn to board.
A process that would take approximately another 45 minutes.   I bailed.  I’ll go again either early tomorrow or wait until Monday when things are less crowded.