We have not had more than 4 or 5 days of rain throughout our
3 months on the road. Saturday was one of them. (Weather forecasts
(vejrudsigter) are very reliable (pålidelige), so we knew 3 days ahead of time,
that it would rain).
We planned after that and decided to spend the rainy day preparing
for our departure on Wednesday. Shopping and, not least, beginning the puzzle
of packing. Luckily, we are both allowed 2 extra suitcases. Otherwise we would
have to leave a lot behind.
December 10 – Sunday, was “Everglades” day. Both of us
have been looking forward to seeing this place of special beauty and nature.
We learned that the Everglades is not a swamp. It is a
huge river, that is shallow and filled with sawgrass (speciel type græs, der
vokser i vandet) and other vegetation. It has an area of 1,500,000 acres (ca. 2
gange Fyns størrelse). It has a lot of wildlife – especially reptiles (koldblodsdyr)
and birds. We picked a cold day to go, so we didn’t get to see too many animals,
but we did see a few.
We started the day with a ride on an airboat (Vandet er ikke dybt nok til at både kan sejle med skrue, så de drives af en stor blæser). We chose to
take a tour, that was given by the local Native American tribe – the Miccosukee
tribe. It was early on a cold Sunday morning. Maybe that is way, we were the
only ones on the boat😊 So, we got a “private” tour. Our guide was very good – a young man, who was half Native American. He knew A LOT
about the area and the alligator.
We saw two alligators on the trip. The first came out of
the warmth of the grass, when the guide “called” it. The next was a mother with
a few babies. The guide explained to us about the lifecycle of the alligator –
from mating (parring) to life expectancy (forventet levealder). He also
demonstrated the gator’s eyesight (syn) by putting his hand VERY close to the
gator’s mouth! He got her to open her mouth, so we could see her teeth.
 |
| Baby alligator to the left of the middle of the mother |
He brought us to an “old village” – an island in the area, where a Miccosukee family lived, until damming of the river, and use of pesticides, made the water undrinkable. He told us about their way of life. Mary thought this was very interesting.
JJ thought the boat ride was fun! 😊
Again today, we ran into hurricane Irma. The storm caused
a lot of damage in the Everglades – especially flooding (oversvømmelse). So
much, that a lot of the park is still closed. We found a few places that were
open again.
One was a short boardwalk trail, called the Anhinga
Trail. It is named for a large water bird – the Anhinga – that lives in the
area. We think, we saw one.
We also were lucky enough to see an alligator.
Then we drove around a little. We saw another gator.
And (we think) a white-phase heron (hejrefamilien).
This is the last “site” we plan on seeing on this part of
the trip. Tomorrow we move for the last time, and then we have to get the car
and camper ready to stay here without us for 3 months.
Written by Mary
No comments:
Post a Comment