Gorilla on the path at Wekiwa Springs, Florida

Plans for exploring Wekiwa Springs were put on hold when I woke early Sunday morning with a very unpleasant stomach bug. Craig had something a few days earlier that made him want to curl up in bed and skip dinner, but aside from feeling lousy for a few days it never developed into much. I won't go into details, but for me the first six hours or so were not good, and a plastic pot was my constant companion. After that I was weak and dizzy and missed an entire day.

We passed on a hike Monday, and went to see the movie "American Sniper".

I felt much better on Tuesday so we went to the Springs area of the park.  The water is very clear and not very deep. You can see the upwelling of the water from below.  We want to canoe sometime in the next few days.

We walked the 3/4 mile "wet to dry" boardwalk trail. 

I told Craig I felt like I was in a terrarium. 

It looped back to the Springs area, where we  met a volunteer who had a Florida Pine Snake around his neck. He asked if I wanted to hold her, and of course I did. She was smooth and cool. She is a good snake. Not venomous and eats moles and mice. But her habitat is very threatened by development. Her species is threatened by wild pigs, fire ants, domestic pets and traffic.

Next we drove to the  Sand Lake area of the park. The water was like a mirror. 

Beautiful!

Sand Lake is really just a pond, but there was a nice path around it. There are many  warning signs about alligators, and we were also told to watch out for venomous snakes along the pathway. Aside from the squirrels the only creature we saw on our walk was this gorilla on the path.

OK, it was a fallen tree, I guess we have been in too many parks looking for wildlife.