'Gators, Herons, and 'Coons, oh my!

DH and I took advantage of a beautiful South Florida winter day by hauling our kayak 80 miles into the Everglades, and launching on the Turner River. On the drive to the launch site, we observed easily 50 alligators in the canal paralleling the road. Yikes! That's enough to give one some pause when considering spending the day in a boat that sits 8" above the swamp's surface...

But not to worry; 'gators are pretty docile if you don't get too close. If you hear them hiss, you know you've gotten too close. Luckily, that didn't happen today.

These water trails are not exactly groomed and maintained for the tourist trade. In other words, we really were in the middle of the swamp, with no help standing by in the event we got into a jam.

Delightful...

Here are a couple of gators, including some babies; a beautiful and brave blue heron; and Rocky, the very curious raccoon.

 

Continued...

And a water lily for good measure!

 

These photos don't illustrate this point, but most of the trail was too narrow to use our paddles effectively. I found myself grasping one overhead branch after the next, steering us along. Jim, in the back of the kayak, used his paddle to shove off of the vegetation along the banks to keep us in the center of the canal. The canal was no wider than 4 feet in most places. The alligator shots in my previous post were in more open water. They like to soak up the sun, which is impossible in the narrow passages. You do see plenty of evidence of the 'gators' frequent presence, i.e. trails through the sawgrass, along the narrow passages, but luckily we did not find ourselves nose to snout along the way.

 

Thanks, friends! I'm pretty happy with the way the shots came out, especially considering we were in a rocking kayak.

Nope, I used my Canon PowerShot S3. Wasn't going to risk dropping the new cam in the drink!