FLORIDA SPRINGS REVISITED
SUSANNE MASTERS
Florida’s springs offer paradise. Welling up from the Floridian aquifer, spring heads and spring runs flowing from them are turquoise-tinted by the limestone bedrock and most are a steady temperature of 21 degrees throughout the year. With over 700 springs in central and north Florida, there is an abundance of publicly accessible swim spots to fill a swimming holiday. Since first swimming in Florida’s springs I’ve returned many times, still finding new delights and always leaving with plans to swimexplore further next time.
MERMAIDS
In its 1950s heyday, Weeki Wachee Springs State Park was the most popular tourist site in the US. It still offers a unique musical show with wild turtles and Florida gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus), a prehistoric fish distinctive for its length and speckled markings, swimming alongside professional mermaids. From subterranean seating, watching through a wall of windows, the audience sees performers inside the spring head. Downstream of the upwelling water there is a swimming area for park visitors. With a flow rate over 65 million gallons of water per day, it is a first magnitude spring, offering the phenomenal visibility of swimming in water freshly filtered through rock.