Spirit of the Swamp Airboat Tours

We filmed another airboat video today, and it was really a blast!  I think the entire crew had a great time and got some awesome video.  Bob, the cameraman, had the camera practically on the floor of the front of the airboat and got some fantastic footage of the airboat gliding across the marsh and in the beautiful Dead River. 

Of course we did our 360 degree turns!  On the way back we went through the marsh again, and this time Bob was sitting on the floor in the front with the camera and wanted us to go off the airboat trail.  With fair warning that we were going to get plastered with everything under the sun, off we went! 

Yep, Bob was covered with pollen, and we picked up all sorts of “hitchhikers” frogs, crickets, you name it.  (Let me pause just a minute here and say we wouldn’t take our passengers off the airboat trails, so no worries).   As soon as the video’s finished we’ll post it on the web site for you to enjoy!

Yes, alligator hunting season started last Saturday night in Florida.  I’m feeling a little worried about some of the gators we seem to see in the same places over and over.  Especially the mama gators – they won’t leave their nests!  I always worry this time of year and can’t say I’m a big fan of gator hunting.

Of course, Captain Harold would tell me that there needs to be gator hunting in order to control the population – an alligator has no predators, it’s at the top of the food chain!  And I know even though they have my sympathetic thoughts, they would chomp me and eat me up if given the chance.

But still…  I can only hope that the smart gators will survive another year so that we can continue to enjoy seeing them!

We see some amazing things from our airboat in the swamp.  And there are times that Captain Harold and I just look at each other in awe, because as much as we’ve been out in Florida’s beautiful backwaters, marshes and swamps we DO find ourselves surprised to see something we’ve NEVER seen before.

Today was one of those days… and our lucky, lucky airboat passengers got to see something we’ve never seen before – an alligator jumped completely out of the water!  Okay, we’ve seen them jump before at Gatorland, and we’ve seen one jump up onto a tree.  We’ve seen them with their mouths open and pointing straight up, we’ve seen them charging into the water, and we’ve seen them hissing, but we’ve never seen one take a leap out of the water like this!  It was almost like a whale breaching – we could see the entire body, it’s white belly, and all four legs.  WOW!

These amazing creatures constantly keep us in awe… so join us on an airboat ride and let’s see what surprises await you!