We went on the Marsh Beast Airboat Tour due to the recommendation of a local relative who takes all his visitors to Blue Cypress Lake, Indian River County to see the wildlife and especially the alligators. It’s billed as a one hour airboat tour, but we easily had more time than that out on the lake. We got there a bit early and it’s worth doing that so you can get your photo taken in front of your boat and you don’t hold up fellow passengers. It’s also better to get out before the other boats if possible, but you won’t be able to do that if someone hasn’t bothered to turn up on time.
Captain Kenny is very knowledgeable. He knows the lake inside out and back to front, but he can also identify the wildlife and tell you all about it. We learnt about the history of Blue Cypress Lake, about its vegetation and its wildlife. During our trip we saw a lot of bird life particularly in the cypress tress adorned with Spanish moss.
One of the great things about this trip is that you are all kitted out with headphones and a microphone. This means you can hear what your guide is saying above the noise of the air boat’s motor, but it also means it’s easy to ask questions too. The only downside we found is that you can’t really talk amongst yourselves unless you want that conversation shared with the boat, but this wasn’t a big deal as we were there to see the ‘gators and not chat.
It didn’t take long before we spotted what we were looking for. In fact, we saw lots of them. Our guide knew where we would see some babies, we saw male and female alligators; we saw them swimming and we saw them resting.
Oh my goodness what an amazing experience for you all, if not slightly scary too!!
I’ve always wanted to do one of these tours. Every time I’ve been to Florida which isn’t that many I times really I tried to talk my family into doing one but it was always no!
Oh that’s a shame Stephanie. It was one of the best things we did. Next time maybe…