We are camping now in a free campground in a piece of land managed by the South Florida Water Management District. One makes a reservation by getting a permit to camp from the Florida Water folks. The campground is roughly divided into Equestrian and non Equestrian with merely a sign with arrows pointing in one or the other direction. There are no defined camping sites; there are water faucets, but no hook-ups. A basic toilet/shower exists, supplemented by porta-potties.
When we arrived and started looking for a place to park, a man about our age with a very strong French accent came out to the road and told us everything we needed to know. Park where you can, it is supposed to be equestrian on this side of the road but if there is no room on the other it is okay to park here. So we did! We pulled in with Paul's truck and trailer and then ourselves beside him and set up camp. Our friendly man from Montreal, Quebec is our neighbor and has been most helpful. We all like to listen to him talk as his accent is most enjoyable to listen to.
On our first full day, Marc, our neighbor pointed out to us that there was an owl family living in the two tall pines that tower over our campers. He showed us where to look and sure enough, there was the other and owlet high above us. Below is a photo of the two of them together.
We arrived on Tuesday so it was Wednesday morning when we first saw the two of them together. We have seen both parents go off and hunt and bring back food for the little guy, but today (Saturday) the parents appear to have abandoned him. Maybe this is the kind of hard love that nature uses when it is time for the young to get out there and do their own thing. We don't really know and will have to do some research to find out. Today, as this is written, the owlet has been alone all day. He/She seems to be going higher up into the tree and looks for parents who may not come back with food. This young one is, according to Marc, old enough to fledge, so we are watching closely to see if it happens while we are here. Our campers are directly beneath the tree where this chick hatched and developed.
Needless to say, it has been a thrill for us to have been able to see this family of owls and now to be waiting for the owlet to fledge and fly off. Last evening we heard a lot of hooting and thought that maybe the event had happened, but alas, he remains. One really feels "looked at" and observed when these wonderful creatures are watching you as the owlet is the the photo above. Everyone in the campground has been checking up on the owlet daily. Quite the tourist attraction.
Now back to the campground. This property had originally been a cattle ranch owned by the DuPuis family. They donated the land to either the state of Florida or the Water Management District. It is a large area and easy to see how it could have been a cattle ranch. The visitor's center was originally their home and it is really quite lovely with one room paneled in the most beautiful mahogany.
Since there are no fees charged for camping it seems to be pretty popular with folks from Canada given that the current exchange rate really favors the USD. Makes perfect sense that if you can camp for free that you would. Many of the campers also have their own solar panels of which we are seeing more and more as time goes by. Those too make perfect sense and certainly allow for more extended periods off the grid (so to speak).
We have gotten some nice bike rides in and Friday did the full length of one of the trails, six miles out and six back. The riding conditions are hard as the gravel surface is severely washboarded, so we get a very rough surface. But we made it! Sore bums at the end after so much bouncing around.
One of the things we passed on our ride was this cemetery. We thought initially that it might be horse cemetery but later learned it was only a pet cemetery. It was the cemetery where the DuPuis family put their pets, mostly dogs, for their final resting place.
We don't know the name of this, but it is an air plant that grows on another plant. This one in particular is blooming and really lovely.
This is a beautiful cypress stand into which we walked via a raised wooden walkway.
Marty, Dee and Paul pause on the raised walkway in the cypress forrest.
The last stop on our ride was a fishing pond with a pier. As we took in the scene the white horse decided to put on a show and started pawing into the water making all sorts of huge splashes. It appears that he was doing it just for the fun of it. The dark horse behind him also joined in at one point but the biggest splasher was the white horse.
With clouds building and looking rather ominous we headed back to the camper thinking that we were going to get lots of rain, which never materialized...just wind.
Lily, our 15 year old cat likes to snuggle in bed with us. This morning she didn't want to get up after we did and just stayed in the sleeping bag.....what a girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment