Our overall Florida vacation plan was to spend half of it in Orlando making the most of the theme parks and the other half chilling out in a friend's villa near Crystal River on the west coast. After an exciting first week taking in roller coasters and water slides, we moseyed on over to a villa complex in Citrus Hills and started to make plans for scuba diving, small town action and relaxing by the pool.
We did one scuba dive out of Crystal River but it was quite boring with not much to see. This was a concern as we were banking on this being the main activity for the week.
We learnt that we could take a trip and snorkel with the manatess which Gill and myself were well up for. The early dawn start proved too much for Rob and Helen and they opted for a lie-in instead. How foolish this decision turned out to be!
We set out on the boat and cruised around the harbour and the unusual waterways that criss cross between the residents houses. It didn't take long to find the manatees and into the water we plopped. You're not allowed to scuba dive with the manatees as they don't want you chasing them around the sea floor, instead you leave it voluntary for them to come and see you but give them the option to swim away deep if they've had enough. Luckily for us snorkelling gave us a very up close and personal encounter with these sea cows and we had an amazing time. The video below does it better justice. A must do trip in this part of the world!
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By Darrell Grundy - visited on 21 October 2000