Wake up in time this morning, and have to say slept very well in the Ray Donovan motel.
We had a coffee and got breakfast with the 4 of us. You could bake your own waffles, very handy you took a cup, throw it in the waffle iron, you give that thing a pendulum and after a few minutes a buzzer sounds and your waffle is ready. Easy and delicious with loads of syrup of course.
Myakka River State Park
The weather was not much better, it was dry but it would rain later in the day and it was already cloudy. We decided to go to Myakka River State Park. A park just outside the city where besides Alligators other special animals live. The park is one of Florida's largest natural environments with a diversity of flora and fauna, definitely worth a visit. At the entrance of the park a nice old lady in a "Park ranger" uniform came to us, she just wanted to say that before we went into the park many parts of the park were under water and we did could use all ficilities, many hiking trails were not passable and the train did not drive, the big swamp boat sailed. Now we are not that adventurous that we would go walking in an area where alligators run loose, so we did not mind and went into the park. You could just drive through it by car, if you just keep to the speed and took into account that animals ALWAYS have priority. Once in the park we saw that all forests and vegetation were under water next to the road. For the park it is actually also the late season, in May and June it is most crowded. In fact, we did not mind at all, now you could just stand still whenever you wanted to look around. After a few hundred meters, Esther saw a deer lying peacefully in the forest, enjoying the peace. I noticed, incidentally, that these animals are not at all frightened or scary, on the other hand, of course, natural when many people come along every day.
Look out......Gatoralert
Found one.....
The park consists mainly of a marshy environment, large plains swampy area interspersed with woods. In the park there were a number of camping spots where you could camp with your camper or tent and there were a number of houses. In the park you can make walks (special bird-walk trips), you could go canoeing (I don’t think I would go on a lake with a lot of aligators), you could fish there (which was done frequently we saw ).
The house on poles for the water
We went with a large swamp boat (such a propeller boat) the lake accompanied by a guide. This man could tell nice and fascinating and put us close to the side with the (he said) the most chance to spot Alligators.
A very nice guide with a lot of knowledge
Alligators are cold-blooded animals, which means that they have to warm up on the sun or surface to stay alive. This time of year, however, it is so hot that they are mainly under water to cool down or hide under trees in the shade. Luckily they did not know much about the temperature today because we've seen enough. You saw them every time with the head and nose above water, when we came too close to the boat, they went down again. A nice game to see. Along the side there were 2 men fishing with large nets that they threw out in the water, our guide told us they are fishing for Tilapia, a tropical freshwater fish. This species (although it is a collective name for several tropical freshwater fish) seems to be a plague in the lake because they grow explosively in terms of population. The gentlemen were not afraid, by the way, they just stepped a meter or 10 into the water as more and more Alligators came "lying" around them. They eat the excess fish. Well, then do me a fish stick,no Tilapia fish between the Gators. As I said, we have seen a lot, including a baby gator. He was lying hidden among the trees waiting for a BigMac to pass. It was a fun and educational journey. For example, we have learned that a female lays Alligator eggs in a kind of home-made oven (eggs need heat to come out and an Alligator is cold-blooded and can not release heat). This covers them with a layer of mud. The mud then absorbs the heat of the sun again and gives it to the eggs. The eggs are neuter, that is to say, when laying the eggs the baby gator is not yet male or female. This happens during hatching, the eggs that lie in the nest (and thus get the most heat) become males. The eggs at the bottom become females. Funny fact. Turtles often "misuse" the nests of Alligators to also lay their eggs there, say yourself who dares to attack an Alligator nest .... Turtles lay eggs and do not look at them anymore (in contrast to Alligators) but in Tortoises the Sexe determination is exactly the other way around, the warm eggs become females and the less warm males. So everyone back with biology .... :)
One of the many gators in the lake, impressive animals
After the boat trip we drove through the park for a while and crossed the road with a mama deer with baby deer, also called Bambi. Sweet to see, nice to eat ... Just kidding ....
a calm bite for the deers
Sarasota National Cemetery
We drove back to Sarasota and passed The national military cemetery for veterans. Very impressive to see. Veterans were still buried from all parts of the army, Marines, Air Force and army. It was really big and really impressive, a respectful place. we were impressed and silent...
In the meantime it had started raining again and we decided to go to the Super-Target, a kind of Walmart but of a different brand :). This one was great and we were able to succeed very well for our errands .... Then went to the Motel because the rain lasted, but unfortunately it is no different. At the Motel, the rain went a little bit harder and there was a thunderstorm, and there were a number of blows ..... cannons ..... they seemed behind in the kitchen smashed so hard and close .. .. When the storm was over, the men went for a swim and we see if and what we are going to do tonight, in the rain you do not do so much .... Tomorrow we drive to our next address.