Travels in a Tin Can

before when we saw some in Seaworld, Florida, and so decided a detour was
a must. The park is massive, 166 acres, and contains a variety of native
Floridian wildlife, including eight manatees. The manatees are the big
attraction, and seeing as they can grow to 15 foot and nearly 200lb ‘big’ is an
understatement. Sadly these creatures, also known as sea cows and related
to elephants, are endangered, not because they have natural enemies, but
due to loss of habitat, and increasing anglers and boat traffic.
We reached the park three hours before it closed, plenty of time to look
round, but then had to pay over $9 each to go in – which seemed a bit steep
seeing as we had an annual pass for the national parks. But this was a state
park - don’t you just love bureaucracy? We then had to wait for half an hour
for a boat to take us into the park, choosing this over the alternative (a tram)
because we thought going on the boat would be more fun even though it
would take longer. As the boat arrived we found out that we could actually
have driven Harvey into the park rather than waiting! Annoying, but still we
would have two and a half hours to look round and the boat should have got
us into the park in time for the 3.15pm wildlife talk about the manatees....
should being the operative word.
The boat journey started well, lazily cruising down a narrow creek
reminiscent of our swamp tour near New Orleans, but with less tethered
bunnies. However, our guide made the mistake of telling us how the boat's
motor worked and how wonderful it was. And then it broke down.
We had to wait 20 minutes to be rescued and then ten minutes while it was
fixed, in which time the guide stoically ignored us and the boat kept drifting
into the undergrowth either side of the creek. We asked if our guide could