Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Little About My Trip to Forever Florida.......

I signed up for this trip hoping to get some great photos, but soon realized I had neglected to put the memory card back in the camera.  Fortunately, while I was clicking those first few shots I realized nothing would have turned out anyway, because the giant dune buggy I was on was way to bouncy.  The dune buggy stands 5.5 feet off the ground.  That is to say that the floor is at that height.  Each buggy carries 20 people.  It travels at a gut wrenching speed of 7 miles an hour. :)  The height definitely allowed us to see over bushes and down into water filled streams with alligators galore.

On the trip I saw deer, wild boar, alligators, peacocks, egrets, cranes, storks, cattle and horses.  We were told about such thing as fox, and panther, turtles and five different kinds of poisonous snakes that existed but were not seen that day.  And that is just the animals....the plant life was also abundant.

This 4200 acre ranch is the home to the largest Cracker Horse (wild horses) herd in the entire United States.  We had a fun moment when our buggy was suddenly surrounded by these beautiful horses.  The Cracker Horse is a direct descendant of the horses the Spanish left behind in the 1500's as are the cattle.

Anyway, I had a great time....photos or not...:)  If you would like to learn more about this ECO SAFARI
and the other things you can do at this ranch check out the link below.

Forever Florida

The family who owns this ranch had a son who died at age 29 right before getting his Doctorate.  He was raised on this farm and grew up to have a fascination for all wildlife and conservation.  He was already heading up scientific studies.  It is sad that someone with so much to contribute to society died so young.  He told his parents that his greatest wish was for them to buy up as much land as possible and let it remain totally natural forever....thus Forever Florida was born.....in his memory.  Today they are still buying up land around them to add to this most unusual place.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had an awesome time, even without photos, lol! Sometimes I find that having a camera distracts me from truly enjoying the experience, since I am too busy thinking about how each shot will turn out.

    God Bless those people who are buying up land in their son's memory. It is a shame that we are crowding out wildlife, killing any animals that get in our way, as we turn our world into concrete. Thank goodness their are small parcels of land where the animals can be free.

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  2. Wow sounds like a really cool place! I don't know that I would have the guts to go somewhere with that much wildlife, alligators and poisonous snakes! ugh! lol

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  3. LOL, Pam...that is why we were 5.5 feet off the ground. :)

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