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July 04, 2004 

For Ever Glades

If anyone is in this area at any point, can I highly recommend ecosafari for all your basic Everglades needs. I had the pleasure of parting with my hard earned cash and spending a day with them today, and it was worth every penny. After my abortive attempt to see the Everglades on the first weekend I was here, i thought maybe a professional guide would help, so I set off this morning clutching my big can of DEET, and prepared for anything.

After an hours drive we got to the Miccosukee Indian reservation, where we got to travel on an air boat (a la Gentle Ben) to the village, have a look at a gator nest, and see some wildlife. After a longer journey back we got back in the minibus to go to somewhere we could walk. They keep the walks short in the wet season because of the mosquitos, so we were only out for about an hour. We saw more gators, a tree frog and some big grass hoppers. We also ate coffee plum and swamp apple (not recommended for your desserts).

We had lunch at a fantastic 'local' cafe, and I tried the local beer (pretty good, but that could just be because of the outside temperature!) and the key lime pie (excellent). Then we headed down to Everglades City for a boat trip - more birds, and the added bonus of about 4 dolphins swimming around us. I have video, but I can't put it up on the web, and for obvious reasons the photographs didn't work.

I'm exhausted now, so I'm keeping this brief. I'll put some photos up, but I feel thoroughly educated, and a lot better equipped to try myself next time! As I said, well worth it.