January 13th - Escaping the cold in a Florida Fishing village
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I have managed to swerve the worst of the wintry weather in the UK. I booked a £501 return flight to Tampa on the west coast of Florida and headed south to the city of Bradenton, which offers kayaking through revived mangrove – and a working fishing village.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. It's Monday the 13th of January and I've spent the past week on the Gulf Coast of Florida, talking to some fascinating people who I'd like you to meet. |
| 0:16.0 | Today I'm in the city of Bradenton, halfway down the western shore of the Sunshine State, |
| 0:23.0 | on the south bank of the Manatee River, and the name of that waterway gives a clue to the |
| 0:29.1 | signature creature in the area, the Manatee, also known as the Sea Cow. |
| 0:36.1 | Taylor Mason Jack is a kayaking guide, but also an expert on the manatee. |
| 0:43.0 | So they transition really nicely between fresh water and salt water, and they also do a great job |
| 0:48.0 | at hacking as kind of ecosystem engineers because they're out here taking care of all of our |
| 0:51.8 | vegetation. Manatees eat about 60 different types of plants. |
| 0:55.6 | So what they're really doing out here is making sure those plants don't grow out of control. |
| 0:59.4 | They're out here kind of acting like a gardener taking care of all that. |
| 1:03.1 | We were talking after some kayaking in the Robinson Preserve, formerly a farm that's returning to its original state as a coastal wetland |
| 1:14.7 | habitat. Charlie Hunziker is the Director of Natural Resources. When we were able to acquire |
| 1:22.2 | this property from private owners, it was a farm laid out flat against this coast of Lower Tampa Bay. |
| 1:30.3 | And we had a vision to bring back a tidal connection with the Gulf of Mexico, the Manatee River |
| 1:36.3 | to the north of here, and with it all the resources that Mother Nature brings in with a tide, |
| 1:41.3 | seed sources, wildlife, fish, wading birds, all those things. |
| 1:46.4 | So we undertook to bring back water to this location by carefully grating out the slopes and |
| 1:52.9 | the shorelines and bringing in waterways into this park. And by doing so, we introduced a whole |
| 1:59.7 | another natural and Florida environment at this location. |
| 2:03.5 | This park and this preserve is here to stay. |
| 2:06.3 | And we want to be interactive with nature, not fighting against it. |
| 2:10.7 | Robinson Preserve also has a tower from which you can survey this mosaic of land and water and look across to the historic fishing village of Cortez. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Independent, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Independent and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.