By the time we woke up, we were already back in port. There was a cargo ship parked (okay, docked) next door, and I watched the cargo being unloaded for a while:
It takes so little to amuse me... here's a picture I took of the ship being cleaned, while we waited in line for customs:
After picking up our car, and hitting an ATM for some cash, we hit the road for our next adventure - a swamp tour in the Everglades (w) . I had previously called our hotel and gotten some recommendations, and we had decided on Billie Swamp Safari, a tourist attraction owned and operated by the Seminole Indian Tribe. Here's a map:
Notice how the city comes to a dead stop at the edge of the Everglades. I had previously noticed this on earlier trips to Florida - flying in over the state, you can clearly see the line where the built up area stops and the open country begins. A few years ago, when I was in Fort Lauderdale for a week to take a class, one evening after class I drove out I-595 a few miles into the Everglades. I came to a viewing area, and got out and spent some time looking out at the miles of nowhere. I also saw a gator swimming in a water-filled ditch by the side of the road.
So on this trip, I was looking forward to getting deeper into the miles of nowhere:
According to the Wikipedia article, that's actually a sawgrass prairie. But I like my name better.
Eventually, we came to the reservation:
followed by more miles of nowhere:
...until we finally came to the Swamp Safari. Southern Florida has many swamp tours, and since is the only one I've been on, I can't compare it to the others. But this one was quite good, and I recommend it to anyone visiting the area. For one price, we got a swamp buggy ride and an airboat ride, and if we'd had more time, we also could have spent more time exploring the grounds, and stayed for the Critter Show.
The first thing we did was the swamp buggy ride. A swamp buggy is an interesting contraption, something like an open-sided bus with HUGE wheels:
...so that the buggy can drive through the swamp without anyone getting wet. As we headed to the loading dock, we passed the following wildlife:
A tortoise
Another tortoise
A caiman (like a gator, but smaller - he's in the lower right corner)
Some gators... behind a fence, thankfully
...and this sign:
We all climbed aboard the buggy:
...and took off. Of course, I had to sit right up front. Although Trooper looks bored in that last picture, he perked up once we got going. The smells must have been fascinating. He spent most of the trip with his paws hanging over the edge, and his nose pressed up against the rail.
Our driver/guide was Jasmine, who kept up a running commentary, pointing out the various wildlife, and making bad jokes. Example: she pointed out a black and white spotted wild boar, and told us it was the Cookies And Cream variety.
Although we did drive through water a couple of times:
...and at one point, had to wait for an airboat to pass:
...most of the trip was on dry land:
...although Jasmine informed us that the "dry land" we were on was actually underwater during the wet season! If we had come at another time of the year, we would have had a quite different view of the place.
At one point, we passed a recreated Seminole Village:
...but most of the trip was focused on the wildlife, of which there was an abundance. Here are some pictures of what we saw:
Antelope
Water Buffalo
Wild Boar
Bison
Ostriches (up close and personal)
Cows and a calf (hey, they can't all be exotic)
More antelope and cattle
We also were treated to the spectacle of two wild boars energetically mating... or, as Jasmine so delicately phrased it, "They're makin' bacon!"
After the swamp buggy ride, we went to the Swamp Water Cafe for lunch, which featured Native American fry bread. We then made our way to the airboat dock:
...where we waited for the next boat to load up and go:
An airboat is a small flat-bottomed boat:
...powered by a large fan:
The operator sits on a high seat at the back (our driver was a gentleman named J.R.):
...passengers sit on bench seats:
...and dogs, of course, lie on the floor. Poor Trooper must not have been very happy - that fan made a LOT of noise. They issued earplugs to everyone, but of course, that didn't do Trooper any good. But Trooper was, as always, a trouper:
Initially, J.R. expressed some concern about bringing Trooper on the boat. He pointed out that there was always the possibility that a gator could jump onto the boat. I pointed out that while it was true that that would be dangerous for Trooper, it was equally dangerous for the rest of us. J.R. didn't have an answer for that, so we all got on the boat, and proceeded to go zipping around the swamp:
J.R. didn't provide any narration - we wouldn't have been able to hear him if he had - so I just looked around at what I saw. On this trip, I paid more attention to the vegetation
Water lilies, or something like them
Cypress tree, and cypress knees
Spanish Moss
But of course, there was plenty of wildlife to be seen. There were a lot of wading birds, like this one, which I think is a blue heron:
And here are some moorhens, which I recognized because I had seen some at the Garden Of The Groves, on Grand Bahama. Their red feathers are distinctive:
Occasionally, J.R. would pull up to the shore and cut the motor, to give us a close look at wildlife. Here are some more wild boar, with some birds in the background, which turned out to be vultures:
And of course, no swamp tour is complete without gators:
They're a little hard to see, so here they are again, highlighted:
After the tour, we hit the road for Orlando. It was a very long drive. Here's the map:
As you can see, there's no direct freeway route from where we were to where we were going. We could have driven back roads, but we were told it would take longer than going the long way around.
Finding the hotel proved to be an adventure in itself. Since the tour package we had bought included the hotels and meals in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, at each stop we had to check in at a "Welcome Center" and get hotel and meal vouchers. In Ft. Lauderdale, that was no problem - the hotel and the Welcome Center were at the same address. But here in Orlando, it was a different story.
In the first place, we went to the wrong hotel. We knew we were looking for a Ramada Inn, and we had the address, and I had the Google Maps app on my iPhone, so finding the hotel should have been no problem. But who knew that there were TWO Ramada Inns, right across the street from each other? And of course, we started out at the wrong one. So we drove across the street, and drove clear around the hotel without seeing the Welcome Center. So I called, and got directions, and finally found the door tucked away at the back. Then after giving us our vouchers, the man proceeds to give us directions to our hotel! Wait, isn't this our hotel? No, our hotel was a twenty minute drive up the freeway...
We arrived at our hotel tired and grumpy. And hungry. And the restaurant was closed. So we looked in the phone book and found a pizza place. They wouldn't deliver to where we were, so I went and picked it up. It was very good. If you're ever in Orlando, go to Flipper's Pizzeria.