One challenge at a time

  My last day in the Everglades and I could think of nothing better to do than to go out on the canal on a kayak. It seemed to be a fitting way to complete the adventure before I headed up north to meet my newly found cousin (long story)  I drove to the marina and today was my lucky day…  the manatees were out in force.. at least 5 were regularly breaching the surface of the water in the marina and I stood there for quite a while watching the scene. I couldn't quite tear myself away from the sight.  The world seemed quite perfect in that moment. Time seemed to stand still a little just so that I could understand and feel the perfection in my bones.  Could the day get any better?  I took to the calm waters and glided along, the rythm set by the paddle seemed to equate to my heart beating, the rythm of the river, the rythm of the natural world sliding past.. all became one and the same until I could no longer distinguish where my paddle ended and the water be...

Day 6 - Alligator Alley I had planned, after yesterdays conversation with the family from St Louis, a trip on the glass bottom boat. The boat ran out of John Pennenkamp National Park and that was located on Key Largo…  one of the islands connected by a single road to the mainland. I booked online and set off early to be there for the first trip out.  The route to Key Largo ran first through a bit of Homestead, a smallish town South of Miami, the one with all the flower growers and then stretched South to the keys.  It was a fairly pleasant journey and the aircon in the car made the burning sunshine bearable. I reached the park, parked up and hopped out to survey the beach. Whitish sand lined the shore on which were placed 4 cannons, found by fishermen and traced back to HMS Winchester. It was a beautiful day, if slightly breezy. The breeze meant that the mosquitos couldn't fly so I was having a brief respite from being bitten, which meant it was already a good day.  ...

 I jumped up early this morning. I had a plan to drive up to the trails at the top of the park road and walk around there. My hope was that those trails would be less underwater than the ones around Flamingo. The road that leads to Flamingo is one long road that snakes its way through the sunken land of the Everglades. There is only the one road and it would take me about 40 minutes to drive from one end to the other. So I hopped in and headed out in the early morning light. A little way up the road, I stared at the fields of sunken grass and stopped the car, hopping out to get a closer look. It was glistening with a thousand... or more likely a million spiders webs and with the rising sun reflecting off them it was an extrememly pretty sight.  Further on up the road was a sign proudly declaring 'Rock Reef Pass - Elevation 4ft' This made me laff as it was very similar to the ones in the Rockies for example declaring the top of the pass  but at a far more respectable 10,00...

 My aim today was to get to the marina as early as possible, hire a kayak amd head up the canal (yes like the ones back home) into the backcountry. I had decoded not to get a backcountry camping permit and go out camping as I wasn't sure how far it was to the nearest chikee (camping platform on the water) and whether it would be a good thing to go out and back and spend 2 days doing that when there was other stuff to see. That said it was also an opportunity to see what the wilderness kayakking trail was like and suss it out for another trip one day to do the whole waterway which was about 7 days worth of kayakking at the least. So I rented the kayak for the day... a nice little sit on top, very stable kayak. The weather was overcast but warm, kinda perfect and I had provisions, food and water, stashed in my rucksack behind me. I wasn't worried about kayakking with crocs in the water because I know they are generally likely to tey and avoid me and unless I fell into the water b...

 I had a somewhat uncomfortable night in the tent... not because of the tent per se, but the mosquito bites that I had were excruciatingly itchy. Bear in mind that by this point I have been bitten probably over 1000 times and I'm not exaggerating...  I already had 20 to 30 bites on the back of each hand... and what is worse, when you try not to scratch, it becomes even more unbearable.... not good or conducive to a decent sleep. I had eventally started to doze off when I heard a thwump ing kinda sound... and then again.. and as I looked towards where the sound had come from on the outside of my tent and more squishy thwump came right by my head and there sillouetted was some kind of frog who had evidently jumped onto the tent and then slid downwards so jumped back up to start the process again... it was kinda funny and although part of me wanted to go and photograph the cute little thing, the other part of me had got settled in a non itchy position and didnt want to risk distu...