Florida Guide > Other Activities
Boggy Creek Buggy Rides
There’s a new addition to Boggy Creek Airboat Rides – buggy rides! Boggy Creek have two locations at East Lake Fish Camp and Southport – the buggy ride is only available from the Southport location which is on Poinciana Boulevard. The buggy ride is wheelchair and disabled accessible.
We tried the buggy ride (we’ve done the air boat ride many times but tried another one!) on a combo ticket which is only available from the Southport location – no need to book, just turn up. A small senior’s discount is available if you’re over 65 so just ask about this.
If you have a short wait then there’s a snack and drinks facility (check out the huge alligator on the floor and the paper wasps nest!) as well as lots of picnic tables in the shade if you want to take your own food and drink. If you want to plan, then the air boat ride takes 30 mins and the buggy ride takes 40 mins.
So, what’s it like? Walk up the ramp into your buggy – this is a huge monster with a shade roof and enormous tyres – and take your seat along either side of the vehicle.
Everyone on board? Then hang on tightly as it’s a really bumpy ride! The buggy tour takes a track through privately owned and run farmland opposite the entrance to the ride location. As you pass by tractor and farm machinery sheds, you might begin to wonder what’s in store for you...
After a short while, you should start spotting some wildlife – the driver/guide is very knowledgeable and will stop and tell you about whatever you come across and also give you time to take photographs.
We spotted some racoons running around and then some great excitement – a mother wild turkey with lots of her fluffy young trotting after her. This is a very rare sight as, when the chicks are young, she usually keeps well out of sight in case of predators so we were privileged to see them.
Next creatures we spotted were wild deer – they were only about 20 feet away from the buggy and didn’t seem at all frightened of us as we stopped to view and photograph them.
Then came some unusual looking cattle – these had been imported from India as the weather conditions are similar and they cope better with the Florida climate. An unexpected sight – who would have thought you could see Indian cattle on a farm in Florida?
Next came the alligators – four of the same sex from the same family (or apparently they fight!). These were in an enclosure and they absolutely love marshmallows! Don’t try this for yourself because feeding wild alligators is against Florida law and can serve a death sentence on the alligators as they get too used to humans.
Our final sighting was of a pair of bald eagles on their nest in a tall tree. They obligingly flew off the nest as we approached but our luck was in as they perched on a nearer tree and we got a magnificent view of them only about 25 feet away from us. The driver/guide told us that they usually take flight as soon as anyone approaches and that this was the first time even he’d seen them in such close up. Needless to say, all the cameras were very busy!
Although we didn’t spot any on our buggy ride, we were told that there are bobcats around the farmland.
Boggy Creek are apparently intending to introduce other areas of the farm for the buggy ride and will add something new each year. The theory behind this being that if you visit one year, you’ll find something different if you visit the following year so it will never be exactly the same ride.
Did we enjoy it and was it worth visiting? We thought it was, despite the slightly uncomfortable ride, as there were lots of wildlife that we wouldn’t oridinarily have seen otherwise and we gained loads of information about them all from the driver/guide. I think we’ll be going on next year’s ride to find out what other interesting routes have been added and to see if we can spot some other wildlife.
To get to Boggy Creek at Southport from Highway 192, turn onto Poinciana Boulevard and follow this road until the traffic light junction with Pleasant Hill Road. Go straight over the traffic light junction (signposted Southport) and Boggy Creek is at the very end of this road. On the way, have a look at the ‘original’ Florida countryside.
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