Peacock Springs Slough

Mayo, Florida

We changed our plans this morning and decided to take a drive over to Peacock Springs State Park.

This is a photo I borrowed from the website.  This area is a cave diver’s paradise.  There are many underwater caves to explore.  Al and I never had any desire to do any cave diving and never took any certification classes for it.  It’s a very specialized sport and you can easily die if you’re not trained properly.  People come from all over the country and world to dive in the Florida cave system.

The park has two springs and 6 sinkholes.  Cave divers have explored and surveyed nearly 33,000 feet of underwater passages at Peacock Springs. This park features one of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental United States.

We’ve seen much prettier springs, but it was a nice day to get out and explore a little.  We talked to a couple about our age (old) who had just come up from a two hour dive.  The cave openings can be pretty small and tunnel like, and they they might open up into a large room.   A lot of cave divers have died in these caves over the years.  There is one way in and one way out and if you lose your way you’re in trouble.  If you panic and silt up the water you lose your visibility.  If your flash light quits, you lose all light.  If you run out of air, you can’t just pop up to the surface like you can in the open water. They run out of air, panic, and die deep inside the cave. Some of these caves go hundreds of feet  down and  miles and miles.  You can easily get lost.  They  have to send someone in to retrieve the dead bodies. 

This is a day use only park and mostly used by cave divers.  The springs had a covering of Duckweed  on the water which looked like green slime.  We understand that underneath that green slime was a beautiful cobalt blue water.

We talked to a female park ranger about volunteer positions.  She told us that they have river front camping all along the Suwannee and they have camp host positions.  She invited us to go down to Peacock Slough and check out the camp host site.  Was it ever nice.  The public can only access these sites by water.

We met Fred and Ann who have been volunteering there since August.  They have a real nice FHU site, with a washer/dryer, good satellite hook-up and a beautiful site right along the river.  It’s a beautiful area and they have it all to them selves except for the occasional overnighter.

Here is a view of the river.

This is a campground for people in  boats, canoes and kayaks who bring tents and just want someplace to camp for the night while paddling the Suwannee River.  There is only one campsite for rv’s and that belongs  to the camphost.  They have 6 wooden screen rooms that paddlers can stay in for free.   There is electricity, ceiling fans, grills, hooks for their clothes, water, picnic table, and a restroom and showers next door.    It’s completely free!  There is no furniture, but you can bring your sleeping bag and be pretty comfy.

A lot of the people who stay there just bring their tents right inside and spend the night.  You sure can’t beat the price!

There are also regular campsites overlooking the river, still free.

The volunteer positions fill up rather quickly and the next ones are due in November and will stay through June.  You can’t find a better campsite.

We understand there are river camps along the Suwannee River and all have host positions. 

This is a picture I took of a beautiful field of Goldenrod.  Pretty, isn’t it?

We then headed over to Madison Blue Springs State Park.  It’s another day use park and there are also underwater caves and caverns.  We saw a few divers there  there today.

It was a little late in the day so it isn’t as pretty as when the sun is right over head.  I think the photos I took last fall were better, but this is what I got today.

We headed home and hope to watch Survivor.  Our good satellite with local channels only lasted one night and  now we only get the cable channels.  We will either walk over to the clubhouse or set up our antennae for the local stations…which is my vote.

Tomorrow we plan to head over to Big Shoals State Park and explore that a little.   It’s another park on the Suwannee River.

Oh, I forgot to mention.  I had another trip and fall this morning.  I think I’m getting klutzy in my old age.  I was stepping up to go to the bathroom and m big toe got caught in my pajama leg and tripped me!  Almost hit the wall before I managed to catch myself.  Another freak accident.

Still nothing from our potential home buyer. 

Work Camping Offer

We got another call for a work camping position.

This one is at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park.  They are working for someone for 4 months.  We went there once to check it out and liked it.  Sure wish we could accept, but we just can't commit to 4 months at this time : (

It seems that finding work camping positions in Florida will be pretty easy...at least in the summer :)

Work Camping

We got a call yesterday from the ranger at Grayton Beach State Park with an offer to work camp there for the summer.

I have heard it is a great park.  It’s located  on the Panhandle of Florida, about 175 miles southwest of us.  It appears the park is right on the beach, but I don’t think the  campsites are beachfront.

That is okay with us anyway.  We prefer wooded campsites.  Some campsites do sit on the lake. They recently upgraded the campground and added 24 new sites with sewer hookups!

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept this offer.  Sure wish we could!

Another Work Camping call

I got a call today from Larry at Lafayette Blue Springs State Park, near Mayo Florida.  He was looking for camp host volunteers in May for their day use park.   Hmmm....might be a possibility.  We were at the springs back in October when we were camping at O'Leno State Park.  We visited several springs that day and I'm trying to remember this particular park.  I went back to my blog post and pictures that day to refresh my memory.  It's tough getting old!  The park is on Suwanee River, which is one of our favorite rivers for kayaking. 


Larry noted on our volunteer application that we were Scuba divers and mentioned that people come from all over to dive in the springs at Layafette Springs State Park. Might have to get out the wetsuit!

In our quest to look into full timing, I also signed up to Work Kamper News.  This is a site where you can find Work Camping jobs, where you can work for a free site, or for a site plus wages, depending on the situation.

We have dove in the springs at Crystal River when the Manatee were there, but prefer the ocean.  In the springs once you're in there a few minutes you have seen all the wildlife there is.  When you are in the ocean, you NEVER know what will come swimming up next...Tiger Shark, Loggerhead Turtle, Angel Fish, or Barracuda!  Springs are beautiful though mostly because of they crystal clear water.  It's any easy dive unless you do a cave dive.  You have to be a certified cave diver if you want to enter the underwater caves. Many people die each year after running out of air deep inside an underwater cave. We never had the interest in getting certified for cave diving.  Again, once you are in a cave, the formations are different but basically nothing changes as far as wildlife.  I like nothing better than being underwater and looking up to see a school of fish, a person, or a boat swimming overhead with the sun shining brightly behind them.  That's quite a beautiful view and one that you would not get in a cave.  I need to look through some of my photographs and post some of those  shots.  It's really quite amazing!

Work Camping Offers

First of all, I would like to welcome my latest "follower".  I don't have a name but he is evidently a Florida, Georgia Kayak fisherman.  You may have some good pointers for us as far as good places to go?  I couldn't find a website for you, but would like to see if you have some favorite places we don't know about :)

Well, as I previously posted, we are thinking of selling the house this year and moving into our RV.  We have been working on donating things to Good Will, trashing and selling some stuff.  We haven't been working too hard though cause we always seem to find other more fun things to do.  I put a few things on Craigs List and did sell an old air compressor.  I went through our closet and trashed some stuff and got another box for Good Will.  I also made some progress in our office.  I'm waiting for Al to get home to help me with the computer, printer, and monitor I'm giving to my kitty sitter Debbie.

We were thinking of doing some short term work camping if we could find something.  I filled out the volunteer form from Florida State Parks, thinking it would take some time to get through the system and them maybe we could try it out.  Well surprise, surprise...we already got two calls from a ranger at Big Shoals SP and Madison Blue Springs SP.  Both of these parks are day use parks but have and RV site for work campers.  We were thinking of waiting until around April, but we may be able to actually do some short term  work camping.