FLORIDA EXCURSION
PADDLEBOARDING ADVENTURES ON CLEAR BLUE WATERS
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Written by: Ben Knowles
eandering down a Florida river on an inflatable paddleboard with alligators and monkeys might sound like a dream, or a nightmare depending on your perspective, but it was reality during a recent visit to Silver Springs State Park in Marion County, just northeast of Ocala. This past spring my wife, Laura, and I launched our paddleboards at the park’s livery for a morning paddle. Our plan was leaving the headwaters of Silver Springs to Ray Wayside Park—which is five miles down the Silver River— and get a shuttle back to our vehicle. We were excited to see what all the Silver River had to offer on a beautiful spring morning. Within just a few minutes of paddling, we spotted a monkey in a tree and quickly realized multiple monkeys were everywhere. We knelt on our boards and started snapping photos of the intriguing little mammals. The monkeys saw us but did not seem bothered at all. They went about their business of sitting on limbs, climbing up and down trees,
and walking along the channel banks. One might think a local zoo left a cage door open, but that is not how the monkeys took up residence at Silver Springs. In the 1930s a riverboat captain released a small group of rhesus macaques on an island along the Silver River, hoping to make the island a unique river attraction. The monkeys quickly escaped the island by swimming to the riverbanks. Over time they multiplied and are now permanent residents of the park and river. After a few minutes of watching the monkeys, Laura and I resumed paddling the short canal to Silver Springs. As we exited the canal, the sun was starting to come out from the clouds and shine on the clear blue spring water. There were very few paddlers out at that time. The park’s glass-bottom boats were not running yet and swimming is not allowed. So, we had a beautiful and peaceful start to our paddle down the Silver River. Laura spotted a manatee resting near the riverbank. After snapping a few photos, I paddled toward an area with
We had a beautiful and peaceful start to our paddle down the Silver River.
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THIS PAGE: PHOTO BY BEN KNOWLES; OPPOSITE PAGE: MIDDLE LEFT PHOTO BY LAURA KNOWLES; OTHER PHOTOS BY BEN KNOWLES
SILVER SPRINGS STATE PARK
