FEB 26: Our Day in the Everglades

 This needs more work, but we begin island hopping tomorrow (March 04), so for now, this will do.

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Words to live by - literally. 

An interesting factoid about alligators - their length can be determined by the distance between the tip of their snout and their eyes. The formula is 1 inch equals 1 foot.

As we prepared to wait in the Everglades on our morning nature walk, a 13-foot alligator had settled itself 50 feet away from our cabin steps. 

We were encouraged to remove our shoes and select a pair from a pile left behind by previous participants. Why the change-out? Why were they left behind? The answer to both would soon become apparent.

Alligators are third in jaw-crushing power, behind only freshwater crocodiles (#2) and saltwater crocodiles (#1). A human's biting pressure is 120 pounds per square inch. A lion has 600 pounds. An alligator applies 2,000 pounds. 

Have you ever seen pictures of someone putting their head in an alligator's mouth? The trick is not to have anything - even a bead of sweat - touch the alligator's tongue. Their tongue is so sensitive it can detect the ripples of a fish swimming between its open jaws. When it detects something, WHUMP!

Our guided tour began by explaining the evolution and importance of the Everglades and the adjacent Big Cypress Swamp, where our camp was located. It was fascinating how this critical area survived multiple efforts to 'develop' it. 

Proximity and power made yet another interesting fact about alligators. They assess threats based on the length of what they see rather than their height. For this reason, the combined length of several people walking close together would discourage an alligator from attacking. Hopefully,  

With the ability to suspend disbelief that every alligator knows this "fact" being directly proportional to the rewards for doing so, we plunged into the muck in close formation.

Moving our feet along the bottom turned the water black. Visibility for seeing where we stepped was zero. The bottom was uneven both in water depth and for sound footing. We were asked not to use the trees and other vegetation for support. I was grateful for my hiking stick. Pam used two. Moving slowly, testing each footing, and never letting your legs cross was imperative to stay upright.

Okay, we had alligators and various other unpleasant critters. The murky water made for lousy footing. Although, thankfully, there were no mosquitos at that time of day, other biting things necessitated long pants (with wet legs) and a long-sleeved shirt. Was it worth it?

Yes. It was a unique opportunity. Our guide, John, was so knowledgeable that he kept tripping over his own presentation by branching off on tangential thoughts. He promised to tell us if he did not know something, but we could not stump him with a question. In addition to a PhD his resume included forest firefighter and US park ranger.

Among many other things he taught us was that a "controlled burn" is appropriately called a "prescription burn."  

I cannot adequately convey all the information he imparted, so I will not try. However, he was so engaged in his presentation that we had to remind him to return to camp so that we could prepare for our next tour.

We hosed off our pants and shoes. Taking off the shoes, we looked at each other, then all three of us threw away our socks. My white ones were now black.

Rosette Spoonbill - picture taken from our cottage window

After a quick lunch, we headed east on Route 41 to mile marker 39 to rendezvous with our airboat. The landing was next door to Tippy's, which had "temporarily" closed in 2021 and had yet to reopen.

Following the careful instructions from Down South Private Airboat Tours (239-331-6613), we first went to mile marker 36. There was a general store there. It had restrooms - the last ones we would see until the end of our 90-minute ride. 

Returning to the boat landing at mile marker 39, we awaited our boat and guide. We heard the airboat returning from its previous tour well before we saw it. 

The airboat ride was in Everglades National Park, and our camp was in Big Cypress National Park. Land predators and other fauna, such as deer, are found in Big Cypress but generally not in the Everglades because there is too little dry ground and protective habitat.

We had arranged a private tour, so it was just the four of us plus our guide, Ryan, and his crew, Nathan.

Again, I will avoid parroting back most of the things we learned. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites and YouTube videos on the Everglades, along with NatGeo, PBS, and other highly skilled insights into the wonders of this fantastic ecosystem. 

Having done several over the years, this was the best airboat ride yet. Ryan took us well away from the road. We saw nothing man-made in any direction. When he shut off the engine, we hear no man-made sounds other than those in the airboat. It was impressive and moving.

One thing that caught our attention was the sizeable areas covered in lilypads. According to our guide, below the water and the leaves were only a few thick 'trunks' from which the leaves sprouted.

This bird has feet so big it can walk on top of lilypads.

Even what appears to be solid actually floated. We watched an alligator head for what looked like a shore, only to dive under it.

Between wading between the trees in Big Cypress in the morning and in the afternoon, flying through the Everglades on top of sometimes as little as an inch of water (because it is near the end of the dry season), it was quite a day.

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Contact Pam or me if you want more information about how we put today's experiences together.