On May 31 daughter Christine and I rented a two person kayak to paddle 5.5 miles down the Weeki Wachee River in central Florida. Below is a sketch of the part of the river we paddled.
As she is the experienced kayaker, she took the back seat and I had the front, needing to paddle only to avoid obstacles. She gave me the green waterproof container shown below to carry my smart phone to take pictures through a plastic covering. I found that my old Canon A1100 IS digital camera would fit in the container, so I elected to carry it there.
Here we are at the launching point, with paddles in hand and our gear all loaded on the kayak.
The river is fed from a flowing spring and flows less that 10 miles to the Gulf. The white bottom is nicely packed sand, with the darker area being small plants growing on the bottom.
The water is placid the whole way. We took the trip on a weekday, but there still were quite a few others in kayaks and canoes. Most had the wisdom to go downstream, but we encountered a few paddling against the current.
This and the rest of the shots are from Christine's smart phone camera. I must confess that I took my Canon out of the waterproof container and twisted to get a picture of other kayakers. My weight shift caused the our kayak to turn over. My camera could not be salvaged, but the pictures on the memory card were ok.
Here we are recovering from the upset. Christine was able to catch up with the gear on board as it slowly floated down the river.
I was glad that I was wearing the floatation device. We dried off quickly.
Here is the best picture of one of the two manatees we saw. Both had scars on their backs from boat propellers.
Above and below are shots at the takeout point at Rogers Park. 2 1/2 miles further the river empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
Near the entrance to the kayak outfitter's place of business are statues of mermaids. The Weeki Wachee Springs Mermaid show is staged there three times a day on weekdays and 4 times on weekends.
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