The Everglades.....

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DAY 26
Alarm went off at 5.15am this morning to get us up for our Day Safari of the Everglades. We picked up the car from Valet at about 6.20am and headed out to Flamingo Gardens in Davie which is where we were getting picked up. Traffic was really good and we got there fairly early and had to wait around a little while. The bus finally showed up at about 8.15am, half an hour late. After one stop to pick up the last people, our guide Jason began telling us about the tour and gave us information on the area. He pretty much kept the dialogue up all day and was so informative and knowledgeable about the area, the wildlife and the plants. I can’t even do him justice in my account, but i’ll try! The other good thing was that everyone was given a card that listed all the birds you could see on the tip and a pen to mark off what you did see. Along the way to our first stop, Jason was giving a running commentary about the different birds that were off to the side of the road and what their characteristics were. We got to see vultures, egrets, herons and lots of other birds. As we were driving into the park Jason told us that last year trappers had to remove 7000 gators from people gardens, backyards and swimming pools!! This is because as more people move in, the less room gators have and they end up wandering into people's homes. Imagine going for a dip in your pool to find a gator in it!!

The other interesting thing he pointed out was that they are in the process of trying to eradicate the Australian Malaluka tree that was introduced to the Everglades quite awhile ago but is now considered an invasive species. They have tried many ways to kill it, but now they have to do it individually by cutting the roots and spraying them one by one. So on this leg of the trip we saw many patches of these trees that are now dead, but waiting to be ripped out and flattened. Jason also pointed out the local Indian reservation and community. I can’t remember what the tribe is called, but they have their own town where they have their own schools, police force, shops, restaurants, hotels and medical facilities. They also run an Indian casino on the edge of the reservation which is very profitable. Jason pointed out the different types of housing the use - which is very different to the Navajo tribe in Nevada/Utah. You could tell the cooking tent as their was ventilation at the top of it.

Our first stop, after about an hour in the bus was an airboat tour. We seemed to be the first ones there as we got straight through. There was only 10 people on our bus and we all fitted onto the one airboat - which was a small one, there were bigger ones there. We all got given ear plugs and begun gliding through the water and saw grass. 80% of the Everglades are made up of water and sawgrass. The airboat was pretty cool as it cut through the sawgrass even when it didn’t look like there was a canal/path. At some point it seemed to get a bit of air when turning corners which was cool. The driver pointed out a few birds along the way until we stopped to see some gators. There were 2 that appeared to be “circling” the boat for awhile. They really were quite docile, and just seemed to be cruising around. Because the water was so shallow, it was easy to see them in the water and see them moving around. Not sure if it shows it in the photos, but could see their underbellies and legs. The water in the everglades ranges from about 3-6 feet in hight tide and 1-3 feet in low tide. Out in this section of the everglades, there used to be native Indians who lived out there. In this section, there are little islands called hammocks, which are teardrop shaped islands that are above the water level. In the photos, you can tell the areas that are hammocks as they have trees on them that stand out above the sawgrass. The native Indians used to carve out canoes from the trees to travel the swamps. That is in fact what the airboats were designed from, as the Indians would stand at the back of the canoe and guide it with a stick in the water. We began to turn around again after spending a bit of time with the gators. We only saw one more gator on the way back, which was a baby one on the banks. The trip went for about 45minutes or so. Once off the boat, we went into a gator display/enclosure where there were about 5 big gators on display. One of the keepers came into the cage to feed the gators and tell us a bit about them. He was really close to all of them and showed us how they respond to their names indicating they do have memory. There was one gator who was nervous around him as about 18months ago the keeper had to tape him up and move his cage as he needed to be placed under quarantine. The gator remembers that this took place and who therefore does not trust him. Even so, when the keeper called his name he came and opened his mouth for food but you could tell he was more alert and on guard than the other gators. The keeper then brought out a baby gator called Snapper. We were able to hold Snapper and take photos for a $3 donation. Both Scott and i held Snapper and he was amazingly soft but cold at the same time. It was really cool! We began our way back to the bus, and by now there was like 10 or more tour buses that had arrived and there was massive lines for the airboats. So we really picked a great time to go. From here we drove to a nature walk and photo studio. The walk was only quite short and went behind the gallery, but it was still really nice. Jason, our guide pointed out orchids that were growing in the tree, Spanish moss, resurrection fern, orchids and so much other information about the local fauna. I can’t remember their names, but you can see in the photos that there is one type of tree, which i believe is a fig tree, that grows in the area. There is another tree that has seeds grow at the base of the tree and it grows up around the fig. Eventually this little tree grows around the tree and grows so big it encases the original tree and kills it off. It looked really cool - have a look in the photos you will be able to see it. We even got to see a frog - tried to get a photo but didn't’ work really well. We then had a look through the gallery and the photography was beautiful but so expensive couldn’t really afford to buy anything. Most of the prints were going for a minimum of $500 up to about $2500.
We climbed back on the bus and headed out to a dirt road in the middle of the everglades. On the way to this road, we saw so many gators lining the canals next to the road. Without kidding, i think we saw about 50 that were lying in the canals and shallow water next to the road. Some of them were swimming in the water and some were lying against the banks in the sun. We got to the dirt road and traveled down it a few miles. We were able to pull over on the banks to get a better look at the gators and there were plenty of them there. Didn’t really get any photos as hard from inside the bus, but there were heaps of them. Once we spent a little bit of time looking at the gators we turned around and headed to lunch. On the way out, Jason was telling us about the Skunk Ape, which is a fabled creature like big foot or lochness monster. I remember about the skunk ape as Hamish and Andy did a story on it for their caravan of courage. There have been varied sightings of the Skunk Ape, but no real confirmed photos or reliable stories. There is a guy who runs the Skunk Ape Research Centre, which claims to have footprints, hair samples and lots of information. Common knowledge however is that the owner owns a gorilla suit. Rumour has it he and his brother don the suit and when it gets dark, the run out on the road in front of traffic to help fuel their business. Strangely enough, there are never any Skunk Ape sightings during hunting season!
Another interesting story Jason told us, was that early on in the everglades history they had planned to build a massive international airport in the middle of the everglades and have all of the supporting infrastructure around it - houses, hotels, businesses etc. After much protest, they shut the project down to the damage it would cause. However, they had already built one of the runways that is still standing today. They use it for a lot of training purposes, however a couple of days a year they open it up to the public and for $10 you can take your car and drive down the length of the runway to see how fast you can get your car. Jason said he has seen all kinds of cars on it - station wagons and all!
Our lunch stop was in Everglades city at a local seafood restaurant. We had earlier chosen to have the Salad/Taco/Shrimp buffet. I had read mixed reviews on line about the lunch but I found it to be really nice. The salad was fine and so were the tacos. After lunch we had a brief drive to the Bay of Ten Thousand Islands, which is brackish water between the Gulf of Mexico and the everglades. Brackish water is a mix of salt and freshwater. The bay itself is relatively shallow when tide is out and gets a bit deeper when tide is in. It ranges from about 3 feet to about 12 feet deep. The bay of Ten Thousand Islands are made up of Mangrove trees that cluster together to form “islands”. The water in the bay is quite brown, due to the leaves of the Mangroves falling into the water and the tannin in their leaves discolouring the water. We boarded a boat, where we did a 90 minute tour of the bay. We had hoped to see some Manatees in the shallow water as this is where they like to live, but as the tide was coming in it wasn’t prime conditions to see them. We drove out further into the Mangrove, where we saw bald eagle, egrets, herons, pelicans and many more species of birds. We also saw some Atlantic Bottle Nose Dolphins. All up, we probably saw 4 different types of dolphins, but at different times. They weren’t swimming alongside the boat or jumping out of the water, but we saw them come to the surface a few times. It was really cool! The boat took us out just into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico before turning around and making our way back in. It was a really beautiful area and the mangrove trees are really quite beautiful and creepy! The birdlife is just amazing and the birds are just everywhere. We saw many birds diving into the waters to catch themselves a meal. After the boat ride, we had a quick look in the info centre before boarding the bus again. The drive home followed alligator alley, which is a long stretch of road in the middle of the everglades where there are a lot of alligator sightings. The other interesting thing that Jason told us about was the Florida Panther. There are apparently only 100 odd left out in the wild in Florida. Once upon a time the population would have been over 2000, but due to population increases the panther has had to move further down south into the everglades. One of the reasons there are only 100 left in wild is due to territory issues. The male Florida panther needs a certain amount of space to call his own and if there are any more panthers than that in the area they fight. One of the main causes of panther deaths is due to them fighting each other over territory. The other main cause of death is due to being hit by cars. There are a number of things they are doing to try and stop the deaths of the panthers. One of which is reducing the speed limit to 45 at night when they come out a dusk. The other method is installing infrared lights in the areas where the panthers live. When one of them gets close to the road it will trip the light and send a signal to motorists to slow down as there is an animal crossing. The biggest initiative is to make “panther tunnels” under the road. There are about a dozen or more tunnels they have build under the road to encourage panthers to not cross the road. They have build fences around the areas where the majority of panthers live to stop them crossing the road and dug out tunnels. They installed motion sensor cameras in the tunnels to see if they work as a lot of people didn’t think they would. Jason showed us some photos taken within the tunnel and there were panthers, gators, racoons, otters and bears that crossed under the roads in the tunnel. So it has been a success. Jason also told us about the Everglades rescue plan which is scheduled to happen over the next 50 years at a cost of billions of dollars. Firstly they want to buy back all the land that was sold early in the 60s/70s. Next they want to eradicate all invasive and non native species of plants and animal. Lastly they want to remove all of the man made canals so that water is not diverted from the everglades causing great drought in the dry season - they want to restore the original flow of the rivers. How they fix this is to fill in all the canals that were dug out. They have trialled this in a few areas, and water began to flow back over the top of the canal spreading out to wider areas of the everglades. The only consequence of this is that many of the roads flood in wet season. The solution to this is to build bridges over these areas, so that it is still passable when flooded. This is a major cost to the project. Whilst we were there, there was roadwork going on to start this process.
After a little while of driving one of the people on the bus spotted what they thought was a black bear to the left of the road. After a few drive bys back and forth, the driver spotted them too and there was a mother and her cub. After some squinting and looking through the binoculars I spotted them too. They were off a ways in the distance, but I got to see black bear!!! The rest of the trip back was fairly uneventful and even managed a nap. But when we almost got back to our pickup point, near Flamingo Gardens, Jason told us to be on the lookout for Iguanas on the side of the road on the grass under the barriers. Sure enough, I reckon I saw about 10-15 iguanas sitting under the guard rail by the side of the road. Some of them were pretty big too.
We got dropped off at the car at about 5.15pm and we drove back into Miami, with a bit more traffic than we left with this morning. After changing and dropping off our stuff we headed out to Lincoln Road Mall for dinner. We found a place relatively quickly that seemed nice. They offered 2 for 1 cocktails so it was a good start. I started on the Mojitos and Scott was on the Pina Coladas. We got a couple of Tapas to share - sautéed eggplant/tomato/basil and some bruschetta. The eggplant was really nice could have eaten a whole plate of it. For entree, I got a pear/walnut/cranberry salad and Scott got Swordfish pasta. Both meals were delicious and reasonably sized. We shared tiramisu for desert which was lovely - nice and light and tasty. We finished off the night with chocolate and mudslide pina coladas. So for $100 we got 3 cocktails each, entree, main and a shared desert. That is just crazy. Would almost be that at home just for the cocktails!
After dinner, we headed back to hotel as we’d had an early start and were quite tired. Tomorrow we are off to Key Largo for some kayaking or glass bottom boating.

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