Deep in the Everglades

March 23rd

On our bucket list for Florida (okay, maybe only mine) was an airboat ride - and because we weren't staying in the Everglades, we made a day trip out of it. Once you get south of

Naples, there isn't much civilization, and air boats are about the only way you can get off the roads to do exploring. Actually, we did see a lot of kayak eco-tours advertised, but we all felt a bit safer seeing gators from a fast-moving airboat, as opposed to in the water with them in a kayak!

Capt. Dennis was our airboat pilot with Down South Airboat tours. He was a riot - very entertaining. We spent all of two hours on the ride, and we made it about 40 miles deep into the everglades.

The boat ride itself was a lot of fun, and a unique experience for sure. As we went deeper into the everglades, we saw more and more wildlife as well. There were many herons along the shoreline as well as cranes.

We were wondering where the "gators" were! Just as I was thinking we needed to visit the gator farm after all, we took a turn down a channel for about the last 5 miles of the trip. We quickly lost count of the alligators along the riverbank as Capt. Dennis flew down the channel. He was taking us to his special gator viewing hole.

At the end of the channel, we passed an interesting "cabin" where it looked like a family of gators had moved in. They weren't thrilled about the disturbance as they were clearly enjoying the warm sun on the shoreline.

Finally, before we turned around to head back - we found ourselves in the middle of a pool of the reptiles. It was a little unnerving as they swam under the boat and all around us. And, we agreed it was a good thing we left Sandie back at the RV :)