Today I headed off with the intention of doing everything north in the Park in one day only. That didn’t happen. So I headed straight to the Shark Valley Visitor Centre first with the hope of doing the tram ride but I just missed one and it was a 2hr wait until the next one so I decided to keep driving. I passed many airboat businesses and thought about doing one but there was something about the signs that didn’t seem right. All the billboards had these macho men wrestling Alligators and tearing up the waterways and I realised that other than the billboards, there is no advertising anywhere else for them. So I thought I’d sit on that idea for a bit before making a decision. I continued on the Tamiami Trail through Reservation Area (which you are not allowed to stop in other than the designated visitor areas, which are basically shops and money making businesses) until I got to the Oasis Visitor Centre in Big Cypress National Preserve. I picked up a map and enquired about the airboat rides and they basically didn’t say anything about them other than they are not sure what the environmental impact is of them yet and they don’t want to encourage people to do them, so that made my mind up not to do one.
From the visitor centre I headed along the Trail for a bit before heading off north on a dirt scenic road that followed a creek line. It was full of Alligators and water birds. I stoped by quickly at the H.P. Williams Roadside Park – got eaten alive by mozzies, took a few photos of a Green Anole (Cuban Brown) lizard and then continued on. I headed back into the Everglades Nati9onal park and stopped by the visitor centre at Everglades City and boat tickets for the two boat rides – a six person boat that goes up into the mangroves and a larger boat that goes out to the Thousand Islands. I had some time to kill before the first one so I drove down to Chokoloskee, a small island at the end of the mainland where quite a few holiday houses, fishing houses and RV parks were and an old store that is now a museum I was going to go in but decided to go and get some lunch instead. I could only find one place that served food so I ordered a chicken baguette. It was one of the most disgusting rolls I have ever had. The bread was frozen, the chicken was basically a huge slab of meat and the salad was drowned in mustard. It was so big I couldn’t even bite into it. So I picked some of the filling out and ate it on its own and discarded the roll.
The first cruise was the six person boat up into the mangroves. Well, I can’t say I thought much of it. I think I could have done a better job of the commentating than the guide. He was this old guy and had no idea what he was looking at half the time. I think he needed knew glasses. It reminded me a bit of the cruise in Kakadu where you go looking at wildlife and end up just crocodile spotting except this was ALLIGATORS. They don’t do anything so once you’ve seen one; it doesn’t matter how many more you see because they are still not doing anything. I was more interested in the birdlife but we rarely got to have the boat angled that way. The cruise up through the mangroves was nice though. The different species of mangroves and constant little tributaries flowing into the main channels were interesting. There were Kingfishers flitting in and around the boat the whole time. On the way back to the dock, a massive rain storm moved in and we got absolutely drenched. So then I was cold and wet.
I had a little bit of time before the next boat tour so I went into the parks visitor centre and chatted to the ranger there. He didn’t know a great deal about the area as he had just returned to work after long service leave and couldn’t remember any of the facts about the animals. I asked about their Junior Ranger program and got some info on it. I asked if I could have one of the badges that the kids get but he refused to give me one. I was disappointed. I thought he would be a little more accommodating, but he wasn’t.
The next boat tour was much better and the guide a lot more knowledgeable. The Thousand islands are actually 999 but they man made one more to make it 1000. We went out to the mouth of the harbour and saw a huge pod of Dolphins. They were really lovely to see, although I realised that I have never tried to photograph them before and they are near impossible to get a picture of. So I just concentrated on the birds instead.
Once back on land I headed out of the park and back into Big Cypress and stopped at the Kirby Storter Roadside Park and did the boardwalk there. It was really nice. I saw a Southern Black Racer snake curled up in a tree near the boardwalk right at the beginning. There were baby frogs along the walk and lots of birds. Right at the end it was just a huge mass of tall trees in about a metre of water. It was really quite nice. From there I started the 3hr drive back to the hostel. I was planning on doing some spotlighting on the way as the last guide told me where the road is to look for snakes and it was the road I had to drive on to get back, but unfortunately by the time I got there a massive thunderstorm broke out and it was the hardest drive back in the rain to the hostel as it poured for a good 2hrs straight. There was a huge Native American Indian Casino that I passed on the way which reminded me of ‘Big Love’. I headed straight to a take away place to grab some dinner because it was 2100 and I didn’t feel like cooking. I went to bed not long after I finished dinner.
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