Highland Hammock

Highland Hammock State Park is just outside of Sebring in central Florida. Hammock is a Native American word for forest, in case you were wondering. Our campsite was in a forest under a big oak tree with plenty of acorns and resident squirrels. Our site was large, although relatively open.

The park has a great car/bike route through the forest with many trails going through different parts of the forest.

Our first stop was this magnificent, 1000 year old oak tree. Its circumference is 36 feet. What tales it could tell!

Next we walked along a boardwalk through a Cypress forest. The walkway was more stable than it looked. However we did watch our steps.

The cypress trees were everywhere. Those are high water mark on the trees.

The pond was also an alligator nursery. This little guy was about 1 ½ feet long. Alligators grow about a foot a year for the first three years so this guy was a little over a year old. We were told that mother – a 7 foot alligator – was nearby, but missed seeing her.

We tried another walk through an old growth hammock forest. About halfway along the trail, we came across this guy enjoying the morning sun, stretched out across the pathway. And he was not going to move. Karen tried stomping the ground to announce our presence. He then slowly moved a bit to the side, waited awhile, then turned around and started to come towards her. Karen then decided to let him enjoy the sun on the path all to himself, reversed direction on the trail and tried to catch up with me. Our best guess is that this was a 4-5 foot water moccasin, one of the 4 poisonous snakes in Florida.

We carried on and tried another trail through an area heavily populated with ferns. There we were treated to a view of this incredible butterfly – we think it is a tiger swallowtail and it must have had a 5 inch wing span. The butterfly was feeding on a flower right beside the path and allowed Karen to get off several great shots.

Our time in the Southern half of Florida has drawn to a close. Our next booking is 200 km North in St. Augustine – on the Florida East coast near the Florida/Georgia border.

Myakka River is one of Florida's oldest parks. As we approached, we were greeted by ominous black smoke clouds filling the sky. The closer we got, the denser the smoke. So with some trepidation, we registered at the office. The ranger assured us that they were doing an “ecological burn” and the smoke, which was not affecting the campground, would clear by the evening. It seems that “ecological burn” is more politically correct than “controlled burn” since the controlled burn went out of control at Jonathan Dickinson in 2005.

There is much to see and do here, including a tour of Myakka Lake on an air boat. The lake is home to over a thousand alligators. We learned alligators are nocturnal so do their hunting at night. To digest their food, they need to warm their bodies to over 80F. So the daytime is for lying around on land or in the water and warming up to savour their midnight snack. That is why people can fish around them and birds merrily walk about. Also alligators do not bother people unless provoked, although they do love small dogs – for a snack. After our tour and seeing all those alligators, Karen had a nice bowl of tasty alligator stew at the park snack bar – she said she appreciates being top in the food chain.

To estimate the length of an alligator, the distance between the nostrils and their eyes in inches is equal to their length in feet. So this guy is about 12 feet long. Males typically grow to a max of 14 feet and females to about 7-8 feet.

The lake is also home to a large number of black vultures with some turkey vultures thrown in for good measure.

Small geckos are all around, skirting about the trees and undergrowth in a never ending search for insects. Although this guy was all puffed out and looking for a date.

Of course, a campsite would not be complete without squirrels gathering nuts.

Early morning is always a good time to sit on a park bench and admire the wildlife in the lake.

We also spotted some feral hogs foraging in the undergrowth. These hogs, well, actually their ancestors, were brought over by the Spaniards during Spain's days of sail. The Spaniards would spot an island, drop off some hogs, and then whenever they needed to restock the pantry, they could go back to the island for some fresh meat. Well the hogs took off in Florida and now they are a real problem. The males can grow to 400 pounds and they do a lot of damage to the undergrowth during their foraging. In an effort to cull the herd, the park allows a trapper to take as many as he can get each year. Last year he got over 1000 hogs, but didn't make much of a dent in the population. Apparently they are rather prolific reproducers and have no natural enemies.

Myakka River also has an arial canopy walkway, one of 20 canopy walkways world wide. These walkways are built to study life at the top of the forest. It was interesting to get close to the various air plants growing among the branches.

There was a tower at the end taking us 74 feet above the forest floor, giving us a bird's eye view of the tree tops.

We enjoyed our stay at Myakka River. Next stop - Highland Hammock.

Oscar Scherer

It just keeps getting better. Oscar Scherer is also on our “return to” list. We got a very private, quiet campsite well away from all traffic noise. The park is near Venus for supplies and several great shelling and walking beaches. We knew right away that we did not book enough time here. While here, we managed to do some shelling, beach exploring, and have a great lunch with our friends Darvin and Marilyn. Unfortunately, our small portable camera decided to pack it in and we lost all our pictures of this part of our trip. We got some shots around the park though.

When I say our campsite was private, we did have to share it – we were the visitors after all – with a gopher tortoise. We were on his/her afternoon walkabout path. About 3:00 most afternoons, the tortoise would come merrily stomping through our site, stopping occasionally to munch a few grass blades.

Now Karen is the photographer. On a normal walk, she will average a photo every 90 seconds so I get a chance to stop and admire the surroundings. Thank heaven for digital!

There is a small pond - behind Karen - in the park with a little beach.

I wonder why we didn't see anyone in swimming? By the way, no one really knows how many alligators are in Florida. They did try to take a census but gave up counting when they reached one million. We have heard estimates of two million. When an alligator gets over three feet long, it has no natural predators, except in times of food shortages when the male alligator will turn cannabilistic.

We have had little rain, but the day it did, the skies really opened up. Florida is basically built on a pile of sand and shells, so the stream running under our trailer quickly disapeared when the rains stopped.

When it's not raining, we really enjoy the walks around here. The birdlife is very abundant. This cardinal caught our attention by calling for his mate, who we also spotted flitting through the trees.

I had to show you a shot of mullet – the fish swimming about in the school. Now if you believe in reincarnation, and you get a say in what you come back as, I would strongly recommend you pass on choosing to be a mullet. Mullets are known as the ultimate feeder fish. Just about everything bigger than a mullet from pelicans to osprey to alligators to larger fish love to eat mullet. Mullet swim around in convenient little schools near the water surface and occasionally splash about to gain attention. So there is not much future in being a mullet. Your basic career choices are being breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Now we are off to Myakka River State Park, about an hour's drive towards Florida's interior.