Uh oh, it appears I have gotten a couple of days behind. Luckily I’m waiting for my pizza to arrive, therefore have a couple of minutes to post some updates.

Day 3, the little beauty in the post here is not as suggested a Dinosaur, it is in fact an Alligator. There are over 2 million of these buggers in Florida, estimated of course. There are laws governing peoples interactions with Alligators in the wild, it is illegal to feed them at all. If you are caught feeding one it’s a hefty fine and upto 5 years in jail. They’re taking this one seriously folks. Back on topic, the gator in the picture is from a nature esq park called Silver Springs at Ocala (or just east of it). Firsly, bloody hot day, like 33-34 Celsius, luckily the park is built into an existing forest so the shade is always easy to find. There are two main selling points to the place, one the Alligators and two the glass bottom boats. First off we checked out the Alligators:

As you can see you can get nice and close, and we’re talking about there being only a thin piece of plastic between you and the big guy.

There was also feeding time, so the head keeper came along and fed the buggers. As you see in the movies they jumped up to get the food, impressive, but they didn’t fight for it like you see in the films. I’m thinking Indiana Jones when the baddies fall off the ladder at the end, that didn’t appear to happen, or were they Crocodiles?

After this it was time to go on the boat. The water you see is pure springs water, so its crystal clear. You can see hundreds of metres whilst underwater apparently. The lake has been used in many many films due to this quality. Creature from the black lagoon was filmed there.

Rubbish picture I know. After the boat there were a couple of demo’s by some of the keepers, playing with the baby gators and spiders and snakes etc. Good laugh and I got to stroke a real Albino Burmese Python.

Went out for dinner with everyone, had the best ribs ever!!!