July 9, 2012 Fort Meyers FL to Corkscrew Swamp FL, to Everglades National Park

Our morning was spent at another of Dick’s favorite Florida places:  Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  This plant and wildlife sanctuary is owned and operated by the Autobahn Society.  Within it is the largest remaining stand of virgin Bald Cypress trees.  Due to the drought, it wasn’t very “swampy” right now, but the highlight is a 2 and an half mile boardwalk taking you through many different ecosystems.  The boardwalk was staffed with ten volunteers ready to answer our every question and point out beauty such as the Barred owl, a glimpse of a couple of gators, swamp lilies, red hibiscus flowers, and a myriad of birds.

Everywhere we looked was beauty.  Dick hadn’t been back there for over 20 years and had found that many things had changed including the large birds that had always nested there had not built nests in the area the past 3 years.  They need to have the perfect combination of water and fish to eat in order to have their babies.  They have gone elsewhere lately.  We so much hope they will be able to return to this amazing sanctuary.

On the way to the Everglades, we had the chance to drive along the side of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge where we saw many signs warning us to watch out for the panthers crossing the road.  We also traveled through the Big Cypress National Preserve.  This is next to the Everglades, filled with swamps and expanses of grass through which water flows to the Everglades.  This whole area is really beautiful, and definitely doesn't feel like California.  At Big Cypress, we had the chance to see a swamp buggy--combination dune buggy and kind of almost a boat. People are really ingenious when it comes to adapting to different environments. We also got to hear that there are around 60 Florida panther in that area.  These are basically mountain lions, but are isolated from the other populations.  Tremendous animals.  And not ones that we would really want to run into.  Not much chance of that.

The afternoon brought us rain, The Everglades and our first true encounter with mosquitoes on this trip.  But the mosquitoes were fierce foes.    One of the first places we met up with them was INSIDE the Visitor Center in Big Cypress. Both of us were bitten multiple times inside the station.  And it kept getting worse.   The mosquitoes actually caused us to have a pretty miserable night sleep in our attempt to camp in our minivan in mosquito-infested area.  We should have take a clue when the ranger at the Everglades told us that we would not have any trouble getting campsite, they didn’t even charge at this pint in the summer...and we were indeed one of only two camping sites in the whole campground.  You start to think,” What do these people know that we should know?"  Battling with the mosquitoes (including the dreaded getting up on the night to go to the bathroom and the bugs come back into the van with you!)  Not much fun, that part!

And the rain...also not great fun.  We saw a funny weather forecast outside one of the ranger stations:  weather forecast for yesterday, today and tomorrow-rain in the afternoon 60% chance.  Forecast for the next six months.  It appears to be true.  We drove through quite a bit of rain.  We also found out that severe storms including lighting had caused quite a fire and power outages for the past couple of days in the Everglades.  We saw some of the burned area but thought it must be from previous years.  All is quite dry now, even with the rain.  We enjoyed a little National Park humor with this "pass" sign.  Later in our trip we will be going over two passes higher than 12,000 feet.

We drove through Everglades National Park to the southern tip of the Florida peninsula at Flamingo. We saw many Great Egrets feeding in the shallow waters of the river of grass.  We also saw a number of Black Headed Vultures.  They were so interesting and willing for us to be up close.  While we were there we saw an immature Bald Eagle looking out over Florida Bay.  We watched him for quite a while before leaving him to his search for fish.

We were able to spend a lovely afternoon, once the rain let up, exploring the amazing 'sea of grass" that makes up the Everglades.  Water is moving everywhere, and the life that gathers here is wonderful.  Despite the rain and the clouds, we were able to take some beautiful photos.  Wish we had time for one of the airboat rides or to ride bikes (although mosquitoes again....I don't know). But we have to move along.