thevalkyry
Queen of the Turtles
Vortex Spring - a set on Flickr
Hello everyone!!
I drove 1500 miles this weekend (with my honey) to go do my 100th dive at Vortex Spring in Florida. We left on Friday and drove all day and got to Ocean Springs, MS in the evening where my honey's brother and his wife live. They are great; a lot of fun. Sat AM we got up and drove some more to just north of Ponce de Leon, FL - home of Vortex Spring. As you can see from the pix, Vortex is a tiny little place and seems to be mostly used for training. But it is the entrance to a cave system that isnt gated off until 300 ft (deep, not in). Not being cave certed, we didnt really go into the cavern, but it did give us something interesting to look at. The koi in the spring are HUGE!!! Really big. And I got to see a freshwater eel too - although he skittered off too fast for me to get a picture.
The water was also COLD!! Colder than Balmorhea, colder than Aquarena. I had a hood, gloves, and a 3 mil long and a 3 mil short, and I was doing some serious shivering. I need to seriously expand my cold water wardrobe.
We stayed at the spring in the Grandview Lodge in a 2 bedroom unit with a kitchen. It was outfitted really well for cooking. The macho guys got up and put on clammy neoprene to go diving Sunday morning too, but I wimped out and stayed warm and dry on Sunday. Sunday afternoon we drove back to Mississippi and then back to Texas on Monday.
768 miles one way from Vortex to Dallas.
But it was worth it.
Hello everyone!!
I drove 1500 miles this weekend (with my honey) to go do my 100th dive at Vortex Spring in Florida. We left on Friday and drove all day and got to Ocean Springs, MS in the evening where my honey's brother and his wife live. They are great; a lot of fun. Sat AM we got up and drove some more to just north of Ponce de Leon, FL - home of Vortex Spring. As you can see from the pix, Vortex is a tiny little place and seems to be mostly used for training. But it is the entrance to a cave system that isnt gated off until 300 ft (deep, not in). Not being cave certed, we didnt really go into the cavern, but it did give us something interesting to look at. The koi in the spring are HUGE!!! Really big. And I got to see a freshwater eel too - although he skittered off too fast for me to get a picture.
The water was also COLD!! Colder than Balmorhea, colder than Aquarena. I had a hood, gloves, and a 3 mil long and a 3 mil short, and I was doing some serious shivering. I need to seriously expand my cold water wardrobe.
We stayed at the spring in the Grandview Lodge in a 2 bedroom unit with a kitchen. It was outfitted really well for cooking. The macho guys got up and put on clammy neoprene to go diving Sunday morning too, but I wimped out and stayed warm and dry on Sunday. Sunday afternoon we drove back to Mississippi and then back to Texas on Monday.
768 miles one way from Vortex to Dallas.
But it was worth it.
