Spirit of the Swamp Airboat Tours

I’ve been so fortunate lately to have received some awesome airboat ride photos!  These were taken by a professional photographer who was taking a trip with his Dad.

I really like this one.  And it was especially fun to shoot.  First of all it’s so nice to see us in shorts and think about the warm weather when this photo was taken last summer.  See how the trees and background is blurred?  We were doing donuts on the airboat and going for the action shot of how it looks while spinning.  Never seen anything like this (I know I say that a lot, but it’s true!)

Check out this shot of the gator, I really love how you can see the movement as he swims across the water:

We’re so fortunate that our passengers send us such great photography!  I’ll share more later this week…

We were in Florida for Winter Break. There were 6 of us, 2 seniors, 2 40 year olds and 2 teenagers. We had seen the Disney thing and loved it but we wanted to see Florida and its wildlife. We heard about taking airboat tours in the Everglades but we didn’t want to drive 4 hours there and back. So we looked into other airboat rides in Orlando and Kissimmee. They were very expensive and in order for us to afford it we need to go searching for coupons. I went to Trip Advisor and looked up the reviews for the airboat rides because maybe the inflated price was worth it. When I read through the reviews one company stood out. It was Spirit of the Swamp. I called the number and I spoke with Debi. She was great. Very friendly, helpful and informative. We loved the idea that the 6 of us could have a private boat ride and for 1 hour at a very low price of $40 each. The other boat companies wanted $85 for an hour boat ride and you where on the ride with a lot of other people.

We booked it and had truly the best time. All of us. The kids wanted to go back another day and so did I.

The Capt. was great very educational. He pointed out everything. He even would circle back to any spot so you could get a picture. The headphones you wore had microphones so you could speak to the Capt. or other people on the ride. You could ask questions and ask the Capt. to swing around to get a better look or a picture. We saw so many animals, alligators, bald eagles, water moccasins, hawks, armadillos, raccoons and many other birds. We loved this ride and the nature of Florida. Truly a great experience. Thanks to Capt. Harold and Debi for providing a great educational opportunity and not a tourist trap.  Highly Recommend!!!  Syracuse, NY

As promised, here are some more beautiful photos taken by Mary, earlier this week from the airboat. I just love this one, we often see little alligators sunning on logs, but rarely do we see one this big crawl so exposed on a log – I guess he’s interested in getting as much sun as possible.

Look at the head of this huge gator. I mean HUGE.  You can tell he’s a monster just by looking at his jowls.  Healthy boy, huh?

Here’s two Sandhill Cranes looking for love. See how the male is trying to impress her with his mating dance?

Lastly, here’s a breathtaking photo of the sun shining through the Spanish Moss…

Thanks to our guest photographer of the week – Mary!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo like this before, have you?  I mean it’s stunning, amazing, breathtaking… I could go on and on.  It should be on the cover of a nature magazine!

Two Gators Close Up

This photo was taken yesterday by Mary – she graduated from high school with Captain Harold! Mary and her husband Karl (who also graduated with Captain Harold) and their son were in Florida visiting and went out for a ride on the airboat with us.

Fortunately it was an absolutely perfect day, and we saw some amazing alligators.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw these two gators snuggled up - it’s something you just don’t ever see! The smaller gator is the female; the large gator is a male. It’s not gator mating season yet (March), so I guess these two are in a courtship phase. Or perhaps he’s convinced her it’s March already?

Is it March Yet?

Mary took so many fantastic photos and lucky me, they stopped by our house before we all went out to dinner, so I got to download them ALL right to my laptop!

Here’s a picture of the high school buddies - Captain Harold and Karl, Hemphill High School, Hemphill, Texas:

More high school buddies, plus me:

Captain Harold, Mary and Karl - Hemphill High School

I’ll have some more incredible photos to share with you tomorrow!