Day 7 - Feb. 24 - Gainesville & the Payne Prairie Preserve

Half day travel north to Payne Prairie Preserve just south of Gainsville. Day was cool and cloudy.   Stopped for lunch at Mojos, a Cuban Cafe in Belleville that Gordon discovered before Charles arrived.  Great spot.

The topography near the preserve resembles the Argentine pampas with its plains and palm trees.

Charles at the preserve entrance.

The refuge is huge made up largely of swamy prairie.  

Amongst the many critters that habitat the prairie are very large dogs with big warts and long tails.  The refuge staff insist they are alligators.

Also there are many types of exotic birds, Spanish horses, cattle and bison although we didn't see any of the cattle or bison.

The trail into the prairie starts with a half-mile boardwalk and is cloaked by huge live oaks covered with very exotic looking Spanishmoss.

After the boardwalk the trail turns into dirt crossing the prairie with an occasional bubbling pond filled with great big dogs.

The trail is well posted with signs that inform visitors that this is a natural area and that there is no protection of any kind from the very big dogs/gators.  Posted guidance states to stay 20' away from gators on land and 5' if the gator is in the water.  As you will observe from many of the attached photos Charles often worked within inches of an alligators nose!  (Just a close up lens actually ... not to worry as Charles followed the 60' rule.  Gordon on the other hand rode gators around the preserve.)

One of the great entertainments really is waiting to see what happens when a mid-westerner approaches an eight foot gator to take an extreem close up with a cellphone!  Unfortunately there was no excitement today.

Headed to our hotel in Ocala and a good but simple Longjorn dinner.