ST. CLOUD, Fla. - On a recent, chilly evening, I looked up and saw more stars than I ever had in the Florida sky. I was 14 metres above the ground and my heart was racing. Then, I stepped off my platform into an inky abyss. I could barely see the glimmer of a swamp below.
Attached to a harness and a cable, I flew through the forest to the next platform. The hum of the zipline and the occasional night bird were the only sounds in my ears.
This was no Central Florida theme park ride - it was a starlight zipline tour on a ranch south of Orlando. For a weekend, my husband and I trekked around the area in search of a wild Florida, away from the manicured and manufactured.
The greater Orlando area is well-known for the obvious: sprawling strip malls, chain eateries and, of course, enormous theme parks promising fun and adventure.
At some point, you may get sick of the parks. Tired of rollercoasters. Can't take another cartoon character.
It's time to get wild and get off the well-worn tourist path.
There are plenty of possibilities. From the starlight zipline tour to waterskiing to off-road safaris both motorized and hoofed, there's much more to the area than most tourists ever dream of.
A good, low-key beginning is a hike through a very different kind of Disney park.
Located in Kissimmee, 40 kilometres south of Walt Disney World, the Disney Wilderness Preserve is a 4,856-hectare park owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. Other than bathrooms and a few picnic tables, there are no amenities here - unless you count the vast swaths of green and gold saw palmetto foliage, flanked by majestic cypress domes.
Before you arrive in the park, there are plenty of fast-food and supermarket offerings if you want to bring along a picnic lunch.
There is no admittance fee to the preserve - it's by donation only - and there is a small stand with flyers and maps, telling you where to hike and what you'll see along the way.
The wilderness trail can be broken up into an easy, four-kilometre hike or an easier 1.6-kilometre stroll. Because it's Florida, the trail is flat - but because it's Florida, it also means that the trail may be wet, so wear proper shoes (leave the flip-flops in the car).
We sidestepped the muddy areas and concentrated instead on the sound of the wind fluttering through the longleaf pines. We were there on a Saturday, and aside from a couple and their baby in a stroller, we had the place to ourselves.
Almost a kilometre in, we detoured onto a spur to picnic near Lake Russell. It's a rarity in central Florida, because it's one of the few lakes that has no development along its shoreline. As we munched on our sandwiches, we admired the Spanish moss dripping from the trees and read about how the lake is actually the headwater of the Everglades, and its water flows some 320 kilometres to the south.
We saw few animals on the rest of our hike - save for a pair of tall sandhill cranes - but the trail guide said that alligators, deer and even the occasional bald eagle have been spotted in the preserve.
Our next stop took us 72 kilometres southeast to St. Cloud, where an eco-ranch named Forever Florida is nestled among cattle ranches and orange groves.
This 1,900-hectare acre property offers coach safaris, camping, ranch esperiences, horseback rides and zipline tours. We chose the latter two - a one-hour horseback ride and a "starlight" zipline tour.
The terrain is similar to the Wilderness Preserve in Kissimmee, only you see it from a different perspective - in my case, it was from the back of a small horse named Taffy.
Our leader was a guy named Turkey Creek Gary, a self-proclaimed cowboy, complete with Wrangler jeans, spurs and a gun nestled in a hip holster. (We didn't need to ask if it was real; we read in the brochure about the alligators, black bears and diamondback rattlesnakes that roam the property).
As we left the stable, a red-shouldered hawk cruised above our heads.
Gary led our group of five and our horses down a dusty trail and into the thick woods.
And into the water. The horses dutifully waded belly-deep into a river, and Gary told us that this was a similar trek taken by early Florida explorers.
Gary reassured us that alligators in the river wouldn't attack our horses; in fact, the only alligator we saw was at the end of our tour, when we spotted a half-metre baby gator sunning himself in the fading daylight.
After dinner, we were back on the ranch for the zipline tour.
We were driven to the zipline area on a giant dune buggy-monster truck hybrid, and on the way we saw a family of deer, two wild pigs and a bunny.
Most folks are familiar with the zipline tours in Central America and other destinations, where you glide past treetops attached to a harness, pulley and cable. Forever Florida's tours are similar, except that we opted to do the nighttime zipline instead (daytime tours are available as well). There are seven ziplines and two suspension bridges on this tour; you can soar at speeds of up to 40 km/h on the longer lines.
The guides gave us a safety briefing (stressing the need to wear "brain buckets," or helmets), then we walked about 10 minutes into the pitch-black woods.
Even though I had zipped through trees in both Costa Rica and Nicaragua, I felt a pang of anxiety as I climbed the first platform, a four-storey structure, in the dark. With no development nearby, there is no light pollution as in other places in Florida - and the thought of stepping off the platform into the darkness was just a tad unsettling.
One by one, our group zipped off. It was my turn.
With the help of my guide, I pushed off the platform and into the darkness. By the time I reached the next platform - a guide was already there to catch me, help me onto the platform and unhook me from the zipline - the only thing that hurt were my cheeks, from grinning so hard.
We spent the night in St. Cloud at the Lakeside Inn, a clean, $35-a-night roadside motel on the shore of Alligator Lake that also boasts cheap and monster-sized breakfasts in its diner.
The next morning, we drove to Clermont, a small town north of Walt Disney World. We passed by several fresh fruit stands - mostly tomatoes, oranges and strawberries - because we had a reservation at Revolution Off Road.
Run by Kevin Jowett, a former rally car racer from the U.K., and his wife, Revolution offers ATV, dune buggy and 4X4 adventures on his large property. There's also a lake where a Canadian watersports pro gives waterskiing and wakeboarding lessons.
It was a bit too cold for watersports - we Floridians don't go in the water if it's under about 27C - so we opted for the ATV safari.
Kevin fitted us with helmets, gloves and goggles and explained how to be safe while on the machines. While my husband was excited about racing off into the woods, I was a bit more hesitant, mostly because I've read my fair share of ATV horror stories. But Kevin soothed my fears, and said I could go as slow as I needed to feel comfortable.
He put us through a training course, where we practised turning and braking. Then we headed onto a trail that wound through the property, past lakes and pines. I started to feel more comfortable and pressed the gas lever with my thumb a little harder.
About 15 minutes later as I powered through a puddle - spraying my ATV and myself with mud - I began to wonder if I was the Danica Patrick of four-wheelers.
Kevin took us up small hills, over logs and through sand.
By the end of the tour, I was covered in mud - not something that would happen at any theme park.
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If You Go . . .
Disney Wilderness Preserve: 2700 Scrub Jay Trail, Kissimmee, Fla., http://www.nature.org or 407-935-0005. Admission by donation. Wear comfortable walking or hiking shoes for the four-kilometre loop; bring water, sunscreen and bug spray, especially in the hot summer months. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Forever Florida: 4755 N. Kenansville Road, St. Cloud, Fla., www.foreverflorida.com or 866-854-3837. Tours vary by cost; a zipline safari and a horseback adventure is $110, discounts for Florida residents available.
Revolution Off-Road Experience: 4000 State Road 33, Clermont, Fla., http://www.revolutionoffroad.com or 352-400-1316. Price varies by tour; two-and-a-half-hour ATV experience costs $65.
Lakeside Inn: 6264 Alligator Lake Shore East, St. Cloud, Fla., http://www.lakesideinnfl.com/news.htm or 407-892-3195. Rates: $35 for a room, $65 for a suite. There is a restaurant onsite with giant breakfasts.
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