The Everglades

Date: 29/08/2013
City: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 558390
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, rain, sunny, humid

We decided to have a relaxing day today, no rush. We will get a trolley to the beach and have a look how the Florida beaches compare with the Adelaide beaches.

When we walked along the beach we found these squares closed off with red tape, so we had a look what the sign was saying.

It turned out to be turtle nests and they are closed off so people don’t lay on them. This is certainly something that we don’t have in Adelaide.

When it started to get dark, we had a look at a couple of shops before we stumbled over a nice pub, which  also sold fresh Oysters. I’m starting to see a pattern here, we seem to be drawn to hot springs, Irish pubs (in special locations) and pubs where they sell fresh Oysters.

Before we could eat the first Oyster, a fire alarm went off. It reminded me of Vancouver, where we were in a shop when the fire alarm went off. In Vancouver the whole building was evacuated, whereas here in Fort Lauderdale, everybody seemed to ignore the alarm, so we did as well. When we went home the flashing lights were still going, but we could see guys from the fire brigade working franticly to switch it off.

Date: 30/08
City: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 558390
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, rain, sunny, humid

We had a quiet morning and looked for a tour to the Everglades. Finally we found one we liked and they had still places available so we booked it. After lunch we got picked up and shortly after arrived at the Everglade Holiday Park, were the air boat and the gators were waiting for us.

 

We hopped on board and off we went. It was a bit noisy on full blast, but an interesting experience. The guide showed us some particular plants growing in the region, particular some nasty grass that had edges similar to a sharp serrated knife which would cut straight to the bone. The weather was great, no wind or rain, so the sky reflected nicely in the water.

And finally we found the Alligators, just swimming along and checking us out.

The alligators live in fresh water, in contrast to our Salties in Australia. After the excursion we had a look at an Aligator show, where a women was handling an Aligator. These animals were in this sanctury for different reason and they are used to humans, but they are animals after all and each of them could have a bad day.

The trick to holding an alligator is using your head… Literally.  You then have your hands free and can tie a rope around the alligators snout with both hands.

It was fun to watch what you can do with an Alligator, but I must admit I appreciated the fence between us. After the show we hopped on our shuttle bus and got dropped off at the beach, where we had a swim before returning to the hotel.

2 comments

  1. Huch – von Key West bis zu den Everglades habt Ihr 50 000 km gemacht. Zählen da die Flugkilometer mit oder ist das ein Tippfehler? Viel Spaß und wenig Regen auf dem Weg in den Norden von Europa! Gruß Ria

    1. Nein, das sind die Kilometer die wir auf Motoraedern auf unserem ganzen Trip zurueckgelegt haben :-). Gestern hatten wir ein bischen Regen es aber ganzschoen kalt.

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