Homosassa Manatees

Bridge across Tampa Bay

We now made it our mission to get further up North and didn’t really have much we wanted to see on the way.  We booked into a little RV park in Homosassa (which we had never heard of) and headed off on the road again.  There are some awesome bridges on the main highway up that coast, especially as you head into St Petersburg across Tampa Bay.  It really is something to see these bridges, they are huge and just seem to rise out of the sea.

Homosassa itself was a very sweet little town  and the RV park was lovely.  It was set on a salt water river, complete with boardwalks, a pub and lagoon in the middle of the park.  It also had a pool which was our first port of call.  It is still so very hot here, you break out into a sweat as soon as you step out of the car.  We met some great people at the pool, lots of people love to hear our story and where we have been and we have heard some great stories as well.  

One of the park rangers that Justin got talking to thought NZ was one of the states in USA.   There seem to be a lot of baby boomers over here who are cashing up their homes and pensions, buying a nice trailor and moving in permanently to RV parks.  Talking to them, they say it is great, they get all the perks (pool, view, space, lawn etc) with none of the responsibility or maintenance.  It costs them about $350 per month in rent plus electricity which isn’t very much.  Their campers are amazing too, it’s crazy what they can do with so little space and it still seems very roomy.  We are talking king size beds, full kitchens, lazy boy armchairs and flatscreen TVs etc.  That’s the life.

Campsite near river

Leo trying his luck

The local, about 50 metres from camper

We got a lovely surprise to realise that Homosassa has Manatees – these are sometimes known as “Sea Cows” and are kind of half way between a hippo and a walrus.  There are only 2500 left in the world and we were lucky enough to be parked up less than 10 metres from the river where a whole pod of them lived.  It was great to see them lolling about, you would sometimes see a snout or a flipper or sometimes a behind come up out of the water.  They don’t seem to be ferocious but they must be if they can co-habitate  with alligators.

The endangered manatee (not my shot)

Justin got a fishing license for 3 days which cost $10 and off he went with Leo, they didn’t get any bites so Justin went out at dusk to try his luck.  Despite fishing in a river teaming with animals he didn’t get one bite!  We had to watch out for Mocassin water snakes here too.  Another reason not to go to the loo late at night…..