After my lovely relaxing day in the Florida Keys, I next visited Everglades National Park.  Some of the things I learned while I was there included:

• There are both crocodiles and alligators in Florida
• The estimated numbers are about 2 million allies, and 2 or 3 thousand crocs
• The Everglades has the largest mangrove system in the world
• They are about 60% red mangroves, the rest are white and black mangroves
• There are 27 species of sharks there, and stingrays as well
• The water in the Everglades is rarely over 4 feet deep, even in the larger lakes
• There are 47 known species of mosquitoes there

It’s a very warm, humid, lush, green place, and occasionally it looked like the vegetation would take over if it wasn’t kept clear of the roads by diligent pruning.

I was expecting the alligators, sharks, birds, and mosquitoes, but there were signs everywhere to look out for panthers.  That was a bit surprising!  According to Wiki: “The Florida panther is an endangered subspecies of cougar (Puma concolor) that lives in forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status (Puma concolor coryi or Puma concolor couguar) is unresolved, but recent genetic research alone does not alter the legal conservation status. This subspecies of cougar is sometimes referred to as cougar, mountain lion, puma, and catamount; but in the southeastern United States and particularly Florida, it is exclusively known as the panther, with respect to its distinction from different cougar subspecies found in other regions of the United States. Florida panthers are usually found in pinelands, hardwood hammocks, and mix swamp forests.  Males can weigh up to 160 pounds (73 kg) and live within a range that includes the Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. This population, the only unequivocal cougar representative in the eastern United States, currently occupies 5% of its historic range. In the 1970s, there were an estimated 20 Florida panthers in the wild, and their numbers have increased to an estimated 100 to 160 as of 2011. In 2013, it was reported that there are only 160 Florida panthers in the wild.”

So that’s cool.

There are a number of hiking places along the main road through the park, and most of them have boardwalks so that visitors can get deeper into the wet areas to see the vegetation and wildlife.

I saw mainly birds while I was hiking on these boardwalks, plus a few fish and waterbugs swimming by.

The Spanish moss on some of trees looked like it had been growing there for a very long time, and certainly testified to the amount of humidity in the air during the year.  However, it was warm but not hot, and there was a light breeze blowing, so the weather was quite comfortable while I was there.

Some of the boardwalks were really lovely, leading back through overhanging trees.

And leading to vistas over the flood plains.  The water here was very slow moving, and never more than a couple of feet deep.  Higher points, called ‘hammocks,’ dotted the plain, and gave purchase to larger vegetation.

The birdlife was rather skittish and difficult to photograph without a telephoto lens, but I did get this one of a Great White Egret.  In the course of the day, I also saw Great Blue Herons, Snake Birds, Turkey Vultures, Osprey, and many more.

One of my goals for the day was to take a boat cruise through part of the interior of the Everglades, leaving from the Flamingo Visitors’ Center at the southernmost end of the park.  The road down there was probably one of the most boring I’ve ever driven, just looooong and straight, with nothing much to look at, and I think I almost fell asleep a couple of times.

When I got to Flamingo and booked my cruise, though, I suddenly ran into the Southern Florida FJ Cruiser Club!  They gave me my card and invited me to join them, and I explained my grand tour to them.  It earned me some coolness points with them, and I should them my fit out — interestingly, they had never seen anything quite like it before.

Since the water is never very deep, and can be quite shallow in places, the boat was flat bottomed, rather like a house boat.  We travelled up a man made canal and into Whitewater Bay.

Probably most of us were there to see alligators, but we only saw a few small ones.  I was talking with a lady from Belgium on the boat, and she seemed rather disappointed, but it is a National Park, not a zoo, so wildlife sightings can’t be guaranteed.  This little ally was just floating around watching us.

The mangroves were one of the more interesting things on the cruise, and we went through miles of them, with aerial roots as well as those in the water.  If you can see back farther into the forest, you can see how impossible it would be to travel my foot here.

Whitewater Bay felt like a large lake, but was only 4 or 5 feet deep, and apparently infested with sharks and stingrays.  Some of the mounds in the distance are mangrove islands located in shallow water.

Oddly, it was when we got back to Flamingo that I really saw most of the wildlife.  These needlefish were hovering under the dock.

But it was when I looked up from them that I saw a manatee surface for air a short distance away.  It never came farther out of the water than this, so this is the best picture I could get.  The lump is it’s head, and the light colored fan is it’s tail.

So that was nice.  But.  As I walked back toward my truck, thinking about leaving… there it was.  The big croc that I had been hoping to see was there, resting on some stone steps at the side of the river.  This was as close as I wanted to get, but even from this distance you can see that part of it’s lower jaw is missing.

So although I didn’t find the Florida Everglades to be overwhelmingly fascinating, it was an enjoyable day, and I got to see some wildlife, including the big croc, so…. Yay!! Success!!