Trail Lakes Campground

On this episode of KurpeDiem we head south where we stay overnight in a wild campground and come face to face with some exotic critters in the Eveglades.

Shanna: “So I am hitting the road. I finally took off. Kevin is about 45 minutes to an hour ahead of me. He actually left the house with my keys. So I’m getting off to a late start, but that’s alright! We’ll get there when we get there, and we’ll sleep at a Wal-mart if we have to.”

Voiceover: Fortunately, we didn’t have to stay at a Wal-mart. Instead, at about midnight we pulled into Trail Lakes Campground in Ochopee, Florida on the edge of the Everglades. The actual campground wasn’t anything to write home about, but the wildlife center more than made up for it.

Shanna: “Thaw out rabbits?”

Owner: “Yeah! I buy them frozen.”

Shanna: “Wow!”

Voiceover: That’s right ladies and gentlemen. He actually did say he thaws out frozen rabbits to feed this 170 lb snake. And that’s not the only crazy thing he feeds this guy. The owner also told me that he finds roadkill and feeds it to the snake, with a wild coyote being the largest thing he’s ever eaten.

And that wasn’t the only snake in the room. Among a handful of other pythons there was one albino named Mellow Yellow who got up close and personal with
Kevin.

Shanna: “This snake is all around Kevin.”

And he wasn’t the only one interested in the snake.

Owner: “Dodo I think it’s not a good idea to get to close to the python.”

Shanna: “He might take you out.”

Kevin: “You’ll be lunch.”

Voiceover: Fortunately in addition to the birds there were other animals I was interested in having fun with, like tortoises.

Shanna: “Look at them! Oh my goodness, they are right under my feet! Literally.”

Voiceover: Well, they weren’t literally under my feet. Not yet, at least.

Shanna: “He’s literally under my feet. I’m standing on…oh and he’s moving…oh my gosh, I’m surfing on a turtle. This is a amazing!”

Owner: “Oh yeah, maintain your balance. Your absolutely no burden to him whatsoever.”

Voiceover: I was surfing on a 40-year-old African Spur Thy or Sulcata tortoise named Tank who weighed more than 80 pounds and barely noticed I was there.

So between Mellow Yellow the albino snake, Dodo the crazy bird and Tank the turtle, we had a pretty good time in Ochopee.