Out and about in Zephyrhills

The DZ is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so it has given me the chance to catch up on the essentials of life, washing, buying food etc. I have not hired a car this time as I knew I could get a lift to the DZ. However it is a bit isolated on the DZ and there is no public transport at hand. However Paul who runs the bar (another Brit) at the DZ and is a cameraman and AFF instructor offered to lend me his Dodge truck to have a look around. It was suggested that I go to Hillsborough River State park which is about 8 miles away. So off I went on Tuesday morning. The park was quite easy to find, Paul had drawn me a map. The park was fairly quiet, so it was easy for me to get around. There are various stopping places, some of these are for picnicking, camping, fishing, you can even hire a canoe. There are marked walkways of various durations, depending up on how fit you feel. There is also quite a bit about the history of the area and the original inhabitants and the settlers.

The vegetation in the park is very tropical (I have the bites to prove it) and I have attached a few photo's for you. There are also alligators in the park, I did not see any, but I am sure they were there.

When I got back from the park I had a trip to the local supermarket. Any trip out is quite an adventure, particularly when I still am trying to get used to driving on the other side of the road. At least here, they don't seem to have kamikaze motorcyclists here.

The weather here is very changeable, its almost always hot or very hot and humid, but there are frequent heavy showers and thunder storms. They don't usually last too long, so you can sit them out and then get on.

I hope over the next few days to get some more jumps in, hopefully will get some skydive pictures next time. I have attached some pictures I have taken over the past couple of days, including a lizard that was putting on a display for me and a picture of Paul's truck alongside my caravan. There is also a picture of a shop called the Sunshine Factory - a real cool shop for everything in skydiving . john 30/7