We left the garden and the ground behind last night and went moonlight ziplining at Forever Florida in St. Cloud. It’s called the Starlight and Moonlight Zipline Safari, and the name says it all. We piled into this army green, safari-styled bus that drove us out to the zipline course.
On the way we saw alligators, vultures, white-tail deer, and a raccoon. Those were only the wild animals. Adjacent to Forever Florida is Crescent J Ranch, a working horse and cattle ranch. We saw fancy French Charolais cattle and good ole Cracker horses. The Crackers are descendents of the horses Ponce de Leon brought over from Spain in 1521.
We walked through a mini-zoo full of baby gators, exotic birds, coati, and a panther/puma mix. Then a quick hike through the woods, and it was on to ziplining. After climbing a 55-foot staircase, we were amonst the treetops. I was the first one to zip.
After plowing into one of our guides, Jody, on the other side (which turned out to be nothing compared to John flying in spread eagle style, crushing him up against a pole, and wrapping his legs around his waist), I spotted an armadillo rummaging around on the ground. That was about the last thing we saw. Here’s John’s video from the last zipline of the day.
As the sun set, we were instructed to turn on our nightlights. You couldn’t see the platform on the other side; and once you got there, you couldn’t tell who was coming in behind you – all you could see were little specks of orange neon zipping through the dark. During my final zip back to the ground, I felt leaves brush my arm for a second but couldn’t see the tree! After seven ziplines and two suspension bridges, this was our view walking down the final platform onto the path back:
Sounds like so much fun! Great place.