Well, it’s finally time to head home. Of course we could not come all the way to
Florida and not dive. We had to decide
whether to head further south to the Keys or dive somewhere else on the way
north. As we’ve done a lot of ocean diving we decided to opt for something
different and check out the caverns and fresh water springs on the northern
gulf coast around Crystal River (Link to American Pro Diving, good information).
Besides, Becky wanted to snorkel with the manatees.
We stopped in St Petersburg, where Jim grew up, and looked up
an old friend he went to high school with. It was strange, going home again. St
Pete’s, like the rest of Florida, has grown and changed so much. We decided not
to even stay the night and headed up the coast. After 50 miles of solid traffic
lights and strip malls the road finally opened up into piney woods.
The area around the Crystal and Homossosa Rivers is
beautiful. It is a state park and a wildlife preserve (Link to Crystal River preserve)
Lots of bays and inlets, canals and ribbons of rivers, marshes and salt water.
(Google earth link of the area)
The water in the rivers remains fairly constant at 72’, so in the winter the
Manatees migrate to the warmer fresh water. We were a little late in the
season, but there is a resident pod in the Crystal River year round. There weren't as many manatees, but there weren't as many people either. (Link to pix of Crystal River, FL)
Thursday morning we watched a mandatory video on how to
interact with manatees, then went out on a pontoon boat to the river and found
several. One was a mother with a new calf so we stayed clear of her. We encountered a very friendly one who came
right up to us and played for 15-20 mins. Everyone had a chance to get up close
and pet him and scratch his back… as our dive master said to the question” do
they really like to have their back scratched?” He said if you had flippers
that were only 18” long and could only reach your chest, wouldn’t you like it?
The only downside was that we were in 3 ft of water and it was very mucky and
the viz sucked. You had to get close to see him…forget pictures. So check out
these links for pictures and info on the Manatees. (As a side note, Florida had a red tide this
spring and many Manatees died.) Here is a video of the manatees from the dive
shop (Link to Manatee video)
In the afternoon we did a drift dive down the Rainbow River,
which is not actually a river but a 6 mile long series of fresh water springs
that create a crystal clear paradise. There
are 3 types of springs and the water stays 72’ all the time. (Link to Rainbow River) There
is a great video on that web site. (Link to the video on the Rainbow River)
Most of the river is under 10 ft deep but there are some caverns that you can
drop into to a max depth of 23’! Crazy, right? Did not see any turtles but saw
a lot of freshwater fish, best of all was the Gar. ( Link to our underwater pix on the river)
Friday we went to the “Devil’s Den” which is an opening down
into the underground aquifer. Being on
the tail end of the dive shop’s busy season is a huge plus because we had 2
divemasters leading our dive group , which consisted of just the 2 of us! It is
a beautiful place, has camping and a RV park. You put your gear on like you are
shore diving and then walk a ways to the opening and go down 2 long flights of
stairs. (Remember, you have to climb them to get out, too) The dome, when it
collapsed, formed a mound in the center of this pool that is surrounded by an
extensive cave system and swim thrus. The
swim thrus are not like anything we’ve dove before! It is an amazing dive. The
water is crystal clear and a constant 72’. Light comes in from the opening in
the ceiling of this huge cavern, but it quickly gets dark like night diving
when you are going through the caves. Many are blocked off or contain warning
signs as being too dangerous to navigate without special equipment and
training, but we went into one anyway. (Link to video of fresh water diving in florida )
(Our pix of the Devils Den)
We asked the locals for the best restaurant in town and they
said “Peck’s Old Port Cove” , the best for seafood. After a 10 mile drive west
through the piney woods and marshes we found it. They have their own crab farm
and the catch of the day special was Grouper, stuffed with crab and topped with
shrimp, blackened style. Pair it with calamari and pint jars of Blue Moon and
we were in heaven!
