Went to the Everglades this am. Had a few minutes to kill before starting our tour and in that time Chris found a mother alligator and her babies?!?! I mean - they were roped off with super-secure caution tape, which of course drew attention lol. I'm not sure I believe being that close to babies is a good idea cause said tape was only a few feet away. Fortunately I have a good zoom lens ;)
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| FYI - Baby Alligators look a little like snakes. Also not my favourite creatures. I took exactly one photo and exited stage left ;) |
Had a tram ride that was fairly awesome. Good and knowledgeable guide. Lots of alligators of course, which pose nicely for photo ops. A good variety of birds, including a couple of the most stunning multicoloured birds I’ve ever seen; for the life of me I can’t remember what they were called. Only got one awful picture cause they were on the other side of the vehicle from me which meant three people between me and it, and, well, I’m the opposite of tall.
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| Obligatory alligator pic; I liked this one cause he's still juvenile and definitely has teenage troublemaker in his smirk. |
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| Here's an adult - still smirky, but not nearly as much fun. |
So first half of trip was pretty good. Things to see on both sides of the vehicle. The guide told us a fair bit about the Everglades, but what fascinated me was about the groups of trees that grow together and what they’re like on the inside of the tree-bunch. Differs depending on the type of tree bunch but some have a watering hole in the middle, some are long and low while others go up as though on a mini mound and other such differences. Part of me was thinking it’d be really cool if we could go in one (ideally without angry alligators ;)
Anyways, we get to the midpoint of the tour and there’s a giant tower you can climb (curving ramp, this is not a challenge) with views at the top, and then a hiking path you could follow at the bottom.
If your sound is on, you'll hear the guide pointing out the crocodile to the school kids.
So the view was lovely and we saw the resident crocodile (according to the guide who was standing next to us).
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| The croc was less than interesting. I personally couldn't tell the difference, esp from that angle, but I trust the person whose job it is to know ;) |
So headed back down and were going to walk the trail. C was taking his time catching Pokémon, and unfortunately we were on a time limit. So when I realized the trail actually went into one of the tree groups I booked it in and was super into seeing as much of it as I could in the super short time.
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| Path carved in the tree group |
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| From the outside, would never have guessed this was hidden in the trees |
Chris called me back all appalled and bemused cause I walked by an alligator. I didn't communicate very well that I was bored of alligators by that point and what was interesting to me was the area. Unfortunately shortly after that we had to turn around. Definitely could’ve gone farther and explored a bit more if we’d been moving faster so I’m slightly disappointed I didn’t just leave C to his alligator and power book it farther in and back, but at least I got to see a little bit.
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| The one I walked by |
The ride back was a serious disappointment. Because of how the road was built, a canal formed on one side - this meant all interesting vegetation and animals were on that side. Which was absolutely not the side I could see, much less get a good photo from. And then the torrential rain started, coming in from our side of the vehicle. Rain hard enough that even wearing sunglasses, it made my contacts float. So that was a less fun end to an otherwise incredible start.
Originally I’d hoped to do a couple of the boardwalk hikes after the drive, but we were soaked through and I was freezing. Chris got us dry tshirts at the gift shop, but they didn’t have anything resembling shorts. So we just decided to head back and get warm and dry.
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| Gratuitous bird shot because I liked it ;) |
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