Everglades Day 2-Bites and Bights

 

I woke up eager to see what was out there.. other than biting insects and as soon as it was light I headed out to the nearest trail…  Eco pond. 

It was only a short hop up from the campsite but I was already sweating by the time I got there. It was a short loop…  around a pond.. funnily enough. But there weren't that many places you could get a glimpse of the pond. The mossies were far more dense here and despite liberal applications of FULL Strength 100% will stop anything DEET, I was still getting bitten. I was soon to learn to just live with it but they were already annoying me. 

There wasn't much of interest around the pond and I headed a bit further up the road.  I very soon found myself at the marina, the place where I could hire kayaks, perhaps for the following 2 days. I walked round the bay side of the Marina and as I did so noticed splashes in the water…  I stood and watched. Massive fish were jumping out of the water but also…  what was that? I could hardly believe my eyes as not very far away from  me from a pool of bubbles arose a snout  …  what was it…  alligator.? Nope didnt look like that sort of snout. At times a bit more of the head would pop up and I could more positively identify it as a manatee…  just swimming around. And not just one or two…  there seemed to be 4 or 5 popping up at intervals. Of course trying to get a photo was nigh on impossible, resulting in a photo of a disturbed pool of water or a ring of bubbles but no actual manatee in sight. I sent one of these pics to a friend…  with the caption…  pic of where the manatee was 2 secs before this pic was taken!

But hey, I knew what I had seen and I haven't gone through the video very carefully to see if I captured it better on that. Time will tell. 

One of the animals crossed off my list… 

I went and enquired about kayak hire for the next couple of days and then went back to get the car with the aim of driving to some of the trails further up. It was warm and car aircon would be appreciated for sure…  about the only time in my life that I will say that! 

I hopped in the car and started driving up the one road into and out of Flamingo. Not hard to navigate here. I then screeched the car to a halt, put on my hazards and went over to the object that the 2 vultures were pecking at in the road…  a snake…  but what kind? It wasnt a rattlesnake, not a burmese python, not a cottonmouth…  it didnt look endemic to me. Too big to be a rat snake in my opinion, it had the larger body of a python but none that were supposed to be here in Florida  It was bizarre . Of course it may have been that decomposition had altered its colours but the pattern was still quite clear. I may upload to a fb reptile community and see what they make of it. But until then, it remains a mystery. 

Onwards then…  and in a totally coincidental link up, I headed towards snake bight… 

I stopped at Christian point but the trail was literally underwater and when I waded out the first few feet, I looked down at my leg, which had turned black with biting things…  my right leg may never be the same again.  DEET clearly was not disuading this lot! 

It should have given me a clue but as I startrd out on snake bight a few minutes later, I realised it should have been renamed to mossie bight as I could literally feel millions of them in the air as my arms moved as I walked  …  millions…  and yes.. they were all biting me. 

Apparently even though its November and the rains are supposed to have stopped and the mosquitos gone…  nobody informed Florida and the rains are still happening on a daily basis, keeping the mossies active. Good for them… extremely bad for me as I attract them like cats to milk…  for want of a better analogy but you get my drift. I was in for a long 5 days! 

The trail itself was hot and humid and narrow, having not been maintained purposefully apparently. I saw a load of small lizards, anoles I think, which darted away well before I could start to get a picture, sometimes even before I saw them, leaving me with a swinging leaf and not much else. I would have stopped to investigate…  but to stop was to die the death of 1000 bites (im not exaggerating) so I kept going…  over fallen trees and through tall grases for what seemed like forever in the heat of the day until I came to a clearing and the end of the trail …. the bight…  and a nice deck platform to observe the wildlife from. No crocs or gators but… oh the birds. I wish I liked birds more cos this is THE place for that. 

The sun was beating down over a scebe of water and mud with sun bleached trees sticking up towards the bright blue sky. And in amongst that flew herons, several types and egrets and ibis and the black vulture soaring above. It was quite a sight… but as I am learning.. not that unusual at all for round here.. 

I sat and ate my lunch and watched the activity until I could take the heat no more. It was time to run the gauntlet again…  head down.. keep moving…  dont stop… 

Eventually I emerged from snake bight.. not totally unscathed. Red wealts had appeared on my legs and arms which were unbearably itchy.  The mossies had one round 1! 

The day ended with me bedding down in my tent before the sun went down, I was so tired. I fell asleep to the sound of the crows and the vultures hopping around and the crickets humming. 

I did think that I couldnt have chosen a more opposite place to visit than my last trip. Iceland was devoid of life in many parts, whereas here was teeming with it. I couldnt wait to see what tomorrow had in store.