Gatorland

April 11th, 2014

We had a notice that our mail was ready to be collected at the local post office instead of being delivered to the park.  We were going to Gatorland today and so we went to the post office on our way.  Unfortunately after some time they told us they couldn't locate our mail but would call us when they found it!!!

We continued on to Gatorland.  Bitchin Betty nearly sent us the wrong way again but we caught it and ignored her!!  Bryan had a free military coupon to get into Gatorland and they have a $9.95 Florida resident special until May 4th that I took advantage of.

Sue at the entrance

We got a map and schedule of shows at the entry and started out.  The first show we saw was Alligator Jumparoo. Here is a VIDEO of the beginning of the show.
The alligators were made to jump for pieces of chicken and personally I wasn't impressed.  I think I expected too much but I expected the alligators to jump right out of the water.  Hmm, guess that was kind of silly of me!!  I took this VIDEO of the "jumping" but the alligator was a bit slow and so by the time he jumped he was out of my camera shot.  I did the best I could through the rafters.

Fortunately we were under cover while we watched this as the heavens opened up and it poured with rain. By the end of the 15 minute show the rain had stopped and we continued on.

The turtles were being fed.  Here is a VIDEO of the children feeding a turtle.

There was a childrens playground with water fountains that were very popular.  They also had heated air dryers to get dried after.

There were lots of different animals here and I can't post all of the pictures but the next area we went to was the swamp area.  This wasn't a swamp as I imagine it but is a natural breeding area for alligators and parts are swamp like.  There are also lots of birds and a lot of them were nesting.  There were a lot of baby birds.  It was very natural and I thought very beautiful.  I could have spent all day just in this area and we did spend a lot of time walking through here.  It was very well laid out to ensure as little interference with the wild life as possible.  Indeed I was amazed that a lot of the nests were very close to the walkways and the baby birds were right there. We took a lot of pictures and here is a VIDEO that I hope you enjoy. I've tried to name the birds but I'm not 100% that I am correct.  If you see I have made a mistake please let me know.

Birds & Alligators

White Egret, See the babies

a bigger baby

Mother & Babies in nests

Mothers & babies in nests & an alligator

Tri Colored Heron 

Snowy Egret babies in their nest

Boat Tailed Grackle???

Observation Decks

Tri Colored Heron

Great Blue Heron with alligator in the background!!

Deer

White Peacock

Rainwater on leaves

After walking around the swamp area we were ready to sit down and watch the Alligator Wrestling.  A boy was chosen from the audience and had to pick out an alligator for them to wrestle.  This is the one he chose.  Everyone was told to stay in their seats and not come to the front so the view wouldn't be blocked for anyone.  Unfortunately there is always one, isn't there!!!  As you will see in the video the mother went to the front first and so, of course, her son followed her.  The boy had been shouting at his mother all the time we were waiting for the show to start as he wasn't  happy with whatever she got him and he had learnt that by shouting or screaming he would get something else.  Poor child, won't stand a chance in life.  

                                      

Here are four videos, VIDEO1,  VIDEO2, VIDEO3, VIDEO4  

We tried our own version of wrestling.  See how brave we were!!

                                      

Bryan paid more attention to the Alligator wrestling than I did.  Think he could get a job??

After the wrestling we continued our walk around and found more animals. They were very used to people and happily posed for pictures.

Peacock

Great Blue Heron

White Alligator (We aren't sure if these are real as none of them moved or blinked while we were there but there was no reason they wouldn't be)

This turtle was sunbathing dangerously

 We had a train ride around Gatorland.  This squirrel was picking up scraps as we waited for the train.

We saw this old airboat while we were on the train

 These parrots were chatting and squawking

This Emu was looking for a snack

So that was our day at Gatorland. I would have been happy with the swamp part and could have spent the whole time there but it was good seeing the other animals too.

We got a message that our package had been delivered and so we headed home.  The traffic was very heavy and it took us a while but we managed to get back before they closed the office at 7pm and collected our letters.

One of the letters caused us to temporarily have to think about changing our travel plans but we will find out more on Monday.  Take care everyone.