A LONG, BUT AMAZING DAY......THUS A LONG BLOG ENTRY!!!!
Wednesday, May 4th, we headed south, further into the everglades. Our goal was Flamingo, the furthest point south you can go by road on the mainland of Florida without going out on the Keys. The area here is at or below sea level. Here we are crossing a "mountain range". Whoa!! Look out for elevation bloody noses!!!
We were told that this road was 43 miles of nothing, but we found it amazingly beautiful and found 3-4 trails to hike out into the Glades.
Many were boardwalks so to protect the flora and fauna. We began carrying hiking staffs due to the warnings of 4 different kinds of poisonous in this part of the park. Alaska hiking staffs for Florida snakes!!
Some parts of the Everglades down here made us think of the tundra of Alaska, the flat pineapple plantations of Hawaii and the plains of Africa. The latter is a place we hope to see someday!
Snake area. Can you see him?
See the alligator trail?
Alligator made oasis. Don't go in there! If the alligators don't get you the mosquitoes will!!
This is the name of the drainage of half the Everglades.
Does this look like the Everglades you envisioned? Us either !!
Some of the oasis looking tree groves are actually not made by alligators. They are islands that are elevate 1-2 feet above the level of the "river" bed. These areas are full of mahogany and other hardwoods. This is where many of the natives lived years ago.
Another wild beast of the Glades!
A hardwood hammock (island).
Air Plant.
Air Plant's bloom.
Mahogany tree.
We so enjoyed these buggy, humid and hot walks! The scenery far outweighed the negatives!
On one walk, we kept seeing Wood Storks (an endangered and rare bird here) flying over.
Fascinated and following their flights, we found this sign and heard what sounded like thousands of birds.
Moving to our left, past the tree line, we saw a lake and a rookery of Wood Storks! It was amazingly loud and vividly breathtaking!
Using the binoculars and the telephoto on the camera, we got closer.
We were impressed and felt like we had discovered a treasure!
Another hope for a trail and a special discovery led us to more birds!
Though not as pretty as the last and the birds were not as endangered!
Buzzards! Lots of them!!
And one lone, shy alligator.
It took us virtually all day to travel the 43 miles to the Flamingo Campground, because of trails like this!
Dense undergrowth in an area we learned is often flooded by brackish water during the wet season, a mixture of salt and fresh water.
The plants develop rooty structures to survive and have adapted to this oft salty area.
Thank goodness for the board walks!!
Aren't the rooty adaptations on these trees amazing!!
We were walking along the boardwalk surrounded by dense tree growth when all of a sudden we were immediately at the water! We were near the bottom of Florida!
We walked to the end of the boardwalk and turned back to see from whence we came. Amazing, eh!!! See the rooty structures at the base of the trees?
Here are some of them up close.
The road here is beginning to be constantly surrounded by jungle!
The nests here are all very big!!!
Here is the architect!!
Finally!!! We arrived!!
Yippee! We are at the southern tip of Florida with the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico behind us!
But, what little beach there is, is ugly and not at all what one would expect from a Florida Beach. This is the Everglades!
Those are a few of the hundreds of islands extending out south of Florida!
The beach!!
More exploring of the area and we found a marina and boat basin. As we stood there marveling at the solitude we had here in this late end of the tourist season we notices a ripple out in the water. See it about center of the picture?
As we watched, we saw two shapes begin to appear. Wondering what they were and expecting alligators or in these parts, crocodiles, we stood still and watched as they came closer to the surface and closer to us.
Suddenly a nose appeared and we thought they were large seals.
Then another nose appeared and they were too ugly to be seals.
Look at those lips!!
We realized that they were manatees. We had seen some in an aquarium in DisneyWorld, so we recognized them.
They began to swim around us and near the docks where we were standing.
Here is one showing us his flipper.
And his tail. They put on quite a show for us as they slowly rolled and swam near the dock.
At one point they both came close to the docks and began grazing on the moss growing on the flotation devices underneath us. We realized they were just big ocean dwelling cows, so we each reached down and petted them.
We think they liked that!
They stayed around for a long time.
Finally they swam away and we stood there marveling at what we had just experienced!
Then we explored and dry pond.
And went and set up camp for the night....with electricity, but no water and a 50% discount for our National Park Pass!
Notice how dry things are? The next day, it rained. Beginning of the wet season!
There are bugs here in the Everglades, but there is a lot of wonder too!
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