Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville

My family and I are great wildlife enthusiasts and whenever we come to Florida we always try to visit a State Park as we are fascinated by the native wildlife. This year we visited Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, in Titusville, which is a stunning 140,000 acres of coastal dunes, saltwater estuaries, marshes and freshwater impoundments. These wide varieties of habitats are home to more than 1,500 species of plants and animals and can be enjoyed by visitors through many recreational opportunities such as bird and wildlife observation, a wildlife drive and a manatee observation deck.

The best place to see wildlife is along the Black Point Wildlife Drive. It's a 7-mile, one-way drive that takes about 40 minutes and feels like you are on an African Safari! One to two hours after sunrise and one to two hours before sunset are the best times to view wildlife actively feeding. We arrived at about 4.30pm, and as it was early February the sun began to set soon after 5.00pm, so we were treated with a magnificent sunset, breathtaking scenery and an incredible array of beautiful birds, so if you are a keen photographer, you certainly won't be disappointed!

To top that, as we left the park and drove down the road leading to the exit, we saw a large cat run across, as we got closer we then saw two smaller cats also run across. At first we thought they were some kind of small wild cats, but as there were no cars around my brother got out to have a closer look and soon realised they were actually baby Bob Cats because of their short stubby tails and striking fur patterns! How lucky was that!