On Sunday 15th February we arrived into Big Cypress National Preserve. Really excited to be back in the fabulous wildlife and desperate to see a bit of the ‘real Florida’… We were driving east on route 41 with a waterway running parallel to the road. Suddenly William screamed out that he’d spotted an alligator. Didn’t believe him at first. But he was right and over the next 5 miles we must have spotted 40 of them all sunning themselves on the banks. Well all of us except John who having to keep his eyes on the road didn’t see a single one!!
We had booked onto a ranger led walk that afternoon and were ahead of time so when we saw a sign for an Air Boat Ride over the swamp we screeched off the road and got onto a tour leaving 10 minutes later. Just enough time to douse ourselves in bug spray and grab our cameras. Having just witnessed loads of alligators along the side of the road and in fact with at least 6 just opposite the car park we were certain we would see lots more on the tour. Wrong.
We were sat right in front of the driver and the noise was incredible. The ride was a little over an hour and within minutes of setting off we had seen huge flocks of Rosetta spoonbills and ibis all taking wing as we zoomed towards them. Felt absolutely like a nature film. Breathtaking!! Making our way between the mangroves was beautiful. A totally incomparable experience. However, as for the alligators they were all hiding!! We did eventually spot a pair who were fishing. Apparently they close in together to trap the fish in the shallow waters then feast on them. An egret perched on the edge of the bank joining in the action looked more likely to become a meal himself. Much though it would have horrified William, we were secretly hoping to get to witness one of the alligators snapping him up!! What was so incredible was the abundance of wildlife. Literally 1000’s of birds that up until now we’d been excitedly spotting in their ones or twos were all around us.
All fabulous and all of us enjoying it until the moment I had one of those gut wrenching thoughts – had I left the coffee pot on the stove when we left the van?!? I had put it on thinking I might just have time to feed my caffeine addiction before we got on the boat… So the last ½ hour of the trip John and I were in complete panic mode thinking we might get back to find that Frankie had burned down!!
Turns out one of us HAD turned it off so Frankie was safe. However, by the time we returned the car park had filled up so we had to quickly reverse out before we got completely wedged in, which meant the kids missed the chance to hold a baby alligator!! Well William managed to push himself to the front of the line to have a go, but without us there Charlie was hesitant and came away kicking himself. We told him we were sure we would see another one at some stage – oh if only we had known then just how many more we would encounter!!
Seemed like a long time since we’d been in any National Parks and so we loved driving through this uniquely beautiful place. Big Cypress is a National Preserve because of the hugely important part it plays in ‘preserving’ the Everglades. It is only 17 feet above sea level and flows gently through Harwood hammocks, to pinelands, across the prairies, into the cypress swamps, mixing with the waters of the estuaries, finally escaping into the Gulf of Mexico.
We had booked onto a Ranger Led program to learn more about it and most importantly get wet wading through the swamps!! As we were here in winter the swamps are more salty and silty as the water level drops. Whereas in the summer rainy season the levels are much higher. So we were told we would only be wading in water up to our mid thigh – which is waist high for me and chest high for Charlie. Called a Gator Trail Swamp Hike we hoped we wouldn’t actually come face to face with a gator in water – they can only manage 10mph on land but 20 mph in water – didn’t fancy our chances. The ranger did little to comfort us when he said most alligators wouldn’t take on anything larger than them so the only person who needed to worry was “the little guy” – Charlie!!
All credit to him he didn’t let it put him off wading into a pool and standing there for ½ hour while we got a lesson in cypress trees, the different eco systems in the swamp and looked into a gator hole!! It was only after we had waded back out again onto dry land that the ranger said he had seen an alligator in the water behind us who had just swam quietly by and ignored us. Arghhhhh.
We got chatting to a couple of interesting folks from Florida who gave us the low down on all the places to see south of here. They warned us that our campsite in Homestead (booked from the following day to the end of the week) was not exactly in the nicest of areas. Hmmmm. Good to know. Although in truth we had suspected as much and in fact chosen it on its proximity to the rental house Dad, Carol, Jon, Nina and Jacob were staying in – but shhhhh the kids didn’t know that at this stage!! They did also mention a great Fruit Stand that we simply “had to visit”. Seriously? A fruit stand?!? We smiled and nodded and promptly forgot about it.
That night however we were booked into one of the National Park campgrounds within Big Cypress. Now this is the kind of campsite we like. 40 pitches all dotted around the lake. So each spot was proper ‘lakeside’ – not 2 rows back from the lake which can only be seen though the awnings, cars and general paraphernalia of other campers sites!! The campground hosts told us there were alligators in the lake and not to fish too near to them – good tip. Very small and very laid back there had been a family visiting for the day who had been using the bench and fire pit at our site before we arrived, which the hosts hoped we didn’t mind. Not at all because when we arrived they were cooking the most amazing smelling chorizo, which they very sweetly shared with us!!
There was a huge alligator sunbathing on an island in the middle of the lake but more exciting was the little 5’ one sat on the bank at the side of our pitch. (Interesting fact. If you want to know how long an alligator is… Take the length of his snout in inches and turn that into feet – i.e. 10” long nose means he’s probably 10’). He ignored us and we ignored him. But we did make the kids fish a bit further along as apparently they often go for the fish on the end of people’s lines as they reel them in!! Great evening on this lovely quiet and beautiful campsite watching the sunset. Boys happily fishing catching sunfish and bass. We actually ate OUTSIDE. Can’t remember the last time we did that at a campsite. Lovely – well apart from being ever so slightly anxious about our toothy neighbor…
The next morning (Monday 16th February) we were up bright and early. We had a lot to do before we got to Homestead for the surprise reunion. Kids managed to squeeze an hours fishing in before breakfast – yes the little alligator was still sat there…. We drove to another visitor centre still within Big Cypress Park and parked up next to the waterway and had our breakfast watching alligators having theirs. Kids handed in their Junior Ranger program books and collected their badges. Then we drove out of Big Cypress and into Everglades National Park. We got to Shark Valley visitor centre all set to cycle the 15 mile trail, only to be told they had no parking for RV’s. This was by 10am – very frustrating, mainly because they had put cars in the RV parking spots! This is a particular annoyance to us anywhere we go – we are 38’ long. If people park their cars in parking spots designed for long vehicles then we can’t park there and unfortunately we can’t get into regular car park spots UNLIKE REGULAR CARS!!!
Deep Breath….. So we parked on the side of the road. By the time we had got our bikes out of the trailer there were cars on the road as far as the eye could see and queues of cars trying to get into the park. We discovered it was No Fee Day due to it being Presidents Day – this also annoys me as I have a park pass, but as I have already had one rant today I will let this one go….
So…. We biked the 15-mile trail. It was all paved so not that challenging for the hill lovers amongst us but ran parallel with a waterway that was absolutely teaming with alligators and birds and turtles. We stopped pointing them out after about miles 3 as there were sooooo many. Truly we must have seen 200 alligators, all no more than 10’ from where we were. A couple were actually on the edge of the pathway. Surprisingly it wasn’t at all scary. They seemed completely disinterested in us (or the other 100 or so people on their bikes) so we got braver about how close we got to them. By the time we got to the observation tower at the middle of the loop and parked our bikes up we were fearless. There were 3 gators sunning themselves 3’ from us and we slowly backed up towards them to take a ‘selfie’. Well 3 of us did. The small one was still convinced he was the perfect sized prey for an alligator so stayed well away.
Bike ride over we drove out of the park and horribly found ourselves back in a city. We’d booked a hire car for the week so we wouldn’t have to take Frankie everywhere in convoy with Dad’s car. By the time we got to the rental place we were only an hour from the pre-arranged ‘surprise’ due to take place at our campsite. One of those times when a queue is painfully slow, service is terrible etc. I ended up screeching that I would “just take the car” regardless of the fact it hadn’t been washed!!
Got to the campsite and a text pinged up on my phone saying, “We can see you”. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to know that they were there and so very very close and the kids had absolutely no idea. To put it into context the boys have talked about Jacob every single day since we have left the UK. They worry endlessly that he will forget them. They complain that he will have grown / changed etc. and they will have missed it. They’ve seen Pappy & Oma (twice), Auntie Kate, Barbar (twice) and Grandman and Nannie in the 9 months we’ve been away – but not Jacob (oh and Uncle Jon and Auntie Nina of course!!). John and I knew they were going to be completely beside themselves!!
So we drove round to our site and were just getting parked up when Dad and Carol drove up and parked next to us. Surprise!! The kids were so sweet. They both rushed out of the van and threw them into their arms. So we were all stood there laughing and chatting and saying “got you!” to the kids when Jon, Nina and Jacob walked round the back of the van and stood there waiting to be noticed. Charlie’s jaw literally dropped to the floor and he immediately burst into tears. William was so overcome he actually ran away and hid in the van. Jacob hid behind Jon’s legs and we all stood there staring at each other.
Thinking about even now (3 weeks later) I’m welling up. Picking Jacob up and holding him in my arms for the first time since May last year was just amazing!!! We all calmed down and then had a really lovely evening. Within 10 mins. it was as if we’d seen them only yesterday and I even caught Charlie inside playing on my iPhone when he thought no one was looking!! But truly the kids were all so pleased to see each other and had so much fun playing in and around the van. I’ve always said it’s really like a playhouse – so Jacob loved it. Jacob’s classic line that night was “I was a surprise for you. Sorry I was a bit shy!” Then suddenly out of nowhere I heard him say to Will “I’ll be so sad when I have to leave you!” Oh how true!!
The campsite was (as predicted by our Swamp Hike companions) horrendous. Basically a mobile home village. Next door on one side were a very sweet retired couple who had a green house and pottered about quietly. On the other side were a family with a dog in a muzzle who was a bit off putting and we heard endless screeching at kids, TV blaring and general surly grunted greeting each morning. Not the nicest!!
However, we weren’t here for the lovely campsites we were here to spend time with the family. Tuesday morning I have never known our kids up and dressed and ready for the day so quickly. We drove in convoy to Everglades National Park west visitor centre, hoping to find an alligator or two for Jacob to see. We promised them we didn’t need to go to Gatorland, as there would be plenty in the park. First exciting spot was a snake on path in front of us, which freaked most of us out. John came over all Steve Irwin and seemed to want to goad it into attacking someone. Luckily it obviously decided we weren’t worth it and slithered off – much to Jacob’s delight.
We drove to the Anhinga Trail and walked the boardwalk there. As we’d hoped there were alligators everywhere. All sat quite happily on the banks of the waterways and marshes. Just a low one bar wooden fence separating them and us. Which in fact they could walk under at any time so slightly begs the question why they bothered putting it there in the first place. Although it serves nicely as a perch for the anhingas – so we got to see them up close, which was nice. The downside of the fence was of course it gives small children something to hold onto / fall against / slide underneath – all of which Jacob did in about ½ a second before our very eyes. Didn’t know Jon had such quick reactions – but he really did pick him up fast!!
The boys just loved being with each other. So very sweet to see them all happily walking along hand in hand chatting away. Bliss!! Also lovely for John and I to be with Jon and Nina of course. Not forgetting having more time with Dad and Carol. That has been one of the highlights of our time here. We have spent more time with them in eh last 9 months than we have in years. William was delighted to be reunited with his Birding mentor and the two of them had their binoculars in hand at all times.
We thought we probably wanted to see the last area of the Everglades, which was Flamingo. Our hire car was desperately low on fuel but we’d seen on the parks map there was a fuel station down there. That and the promise of spotting some manatees made it seem like a good idea. Hmmmm. The road down there was 40 miles long and basically went in almost a straight line through endless pinelands, with the odd area of saw grass marshes thrown in. We were running on air by the time we got there and literally rolled into the small forecourt to discover the fuel was $5 a gallon – arghhh – meant for boats! Almost as expensive as filling up at home!!
We got an ice cream and had a wander around. The kids went and got their Junior Ranger badges and even persuaded the Ranger to give Jacob one too. Very sweet watching them all be ‘sworn in’. Slightly disappointed by the lack of manatees William suddenly spotted one. The rest of us thought it was a rock!! A nice lady tipped us off to turn on the tap on the jetty. At which stage the manatee swam over and drank the fresh water. Very cool to be up so close to one of these crazy ‘cows of the sea’.
We drove back to the campsite to swim (one good thing about the campsite was the huge shallow pool). The ‘twitchers’ and Carol and I went in our car so we could stop to spot the roseate spoonbill (Will already seen loads so he was happy pointing them out to pappy and being the expert for once!). Carol and I just having the time of our lives!!!
Wednesday was the day of the big fishing trip. Jon, will, john and dad set off at 5.30am. Sadly it was the one day of the week when it poured with rain and was actually pretty cold. Well not too cold for those of us that stayed behind and had a nice relaxed day hanging out in the rental house!! Charlie and I got to have Jacob all to ourselves while Nina got some retail therapy.
The fishermen returned late afternoon and had caught supper!! They’d had a great if not very wet day. Catching grouper, bonefish, great snapper, permit, hog fish. They’d all caught loads and were pretty chuffed with themselves!! William had even hooked an enormous eagle Ray 6-8’ wide, which had meant they’d, had to cut his line, which was probably the highlight of the day.
Thursday Dad and Carol went off on a little road trip to Key West. They told us they just wanted to see it, but we suspect they were really heading to the Key Lime Pie factory. Although the sun was shining there was a really cold wind so we were all back in jeans. We had a look around what we could do in the area and decided that the Everglades Outpost Rescue Centre sounded just the ticket (and was just down the road). Turned out to be a very weird place.
They supposedly take in injured wildlife, rehabilitate it, and release it back to the wild. Their website said that most of the animals residing there had been confiscated from illegal or abusive situations by Wildlife, Fish and Game Officers, or have been abandoned by their human owners. They provide medical care and treatment then whenever possible, release the animal back to its natural habitat. The animals that cannot be returned to the wild then remain there. At the ticket office the girl was cuddling 2 tiny baby squirrels that she let us stroke. Like little pink rats.
The cages and enclosures looked like they’d been thrown together by the type of remnants of wood or fencing you might have in your shed and truly didn’t look like they would really keep the animals in. It was odd. Very exciting to see a real life Florida Panther up close (had seen signs along the roads in Everglades & Big Cypress saying to watch out for them but had suspected as with all these wildlife signs that you’d be more likely to be struck by lightning than actually clap eyes on one of them). As we approached his cage we noticed a pigeon had somehow found his way into the enclosure. Sadly for the pigeon the panther had also spotted him. So we stood there and watched him chase the pigeon round and round, all cheering him on and screaming with delight as the pigeon flew away. But that panther was just too fast and eventually he leapt on it and ripped its head off – which shut us all up pretty quickly!!
We saw a tank of tiny baby alligators all of them about 6” long which looked very sweet. The same slightly strange girl from the ticket office suddenly appeared and asked us if we wanted to hold a baby alligator. Thinking those were the ones she meant we all readily agreed, including Jacob. She disappeared and came back with one about 2’ long – list of volunteers immediately went down. She had taken the precaution of taping its mouth shut, but that still wasn’t enough to persuade some of us it was a good idea. William, John and Jon held it while the rest of us took pictures.
Think our favourite enclosure was the one we had spotted from the road on our way in and out of the Everglades on Tuesday. Here they had a camel, 2 donkeys, a zebra and a turtle. Not necessarily natural roommates… You sort of have to wonder how a zebra had come them and where exactly they might have ‘released’ it back into the wild anywhere nearby!!
Just the other side of the road and we had also driven by the fruit stand we’d been told about by our hiking companions back in Big Cypress. We’d been slightly underwhelmed by the thought of a fruit stand – but this was something else. Called Robert is Here they’ve been selling fruit and vegetables on the side of the road since 1959, when a 5 year old Robert was left there by his dad with a pile of home grown cucumbers and told to “sell ‘em”. No one stopped and he didn’t sell a single one. So the next day his dad made a cardboard sign that read, “Robert is here” so drivers would spot him. He’s’ been selling ever since. Mangoes are his specialty but they sell a huge range of tropical fruit and vegetables. Their shakes and smoothies are what most people seem to stop for. They were the thickest fruitiest cups of deliciousness ever!!! Key lime pie and Mango ones were voted the best by our family!!
Gorgeous exchange with Jacob at bedtime that night. We’d been out to dinner at Sonny’s Ribs (yum yum) and it was past Jacob’s bedtime. So we drove back to the house in convoy and we snuck into the house so the kids wouldn’t be too much of a distraction to him. However, he decreed it should be me that read to him that night and told me as much when I went up there. He didn’t know the boys were downstairs so said to me “where are your children?” I said they had gone to bed because they were tired at which point he said, “I’m tired too”. I said, “Yes I know. So after stories straight to sleep for you!” His answer was; “Yes and straight after stories you go back to your children!!” Classic!!
Friday was our last day with them. Jon was really poorly so he stayed in bed and the rest of us headed to Biscayne National Park. I’d been really excited about this park as it looked stunning and was totally different to any of the other National Parks we’d seen so far. Unlike most of the National Parks are experienced in a car or on foot, the only real way to explore Biscayne is by boat. This is because it preserves Biscayne Bay and it’s off shore barrier reefs and 95% of its 172,000 acres are covered by water. Sadly the NPS’s boat operator had gone out of business and so unless you have your own boat (no we don’t have one of those tucked in Frankie’s trailer) you’re pretty scuppered!! So we walked the boardwalk and watched Parks film. The kids tried on turtle shells and got another Ranger badge – Jacob’s doing pretty well so far!
We spent our last afternoon together swimming at the campsite; Jon was feeling a bit better so came to join us. We then all went back to the rental house where I took full advantage of the FREE washing machine there and did all our laundry!!
It was so very lovely to have had this time with them all. Truly we’ve never spent so long a period with them I don’t think so it was a lovely treat. The kids have now made us promise there are no more secrets, which I think is a fairly safe bet. Apart from maybe one or two more short visits with Dad & Carol as we head north we have now had visits from nearly everyone. (Few cousins and aunties and uncles short of the full set). So as always it was horrible saying goodbye. But nice to know that it really is only a few months now until we will see everyone again and Jacob can’t possibly change all that much in that short time can he?!?!
They all left on Saturday – Dad and carol driving back up to Connecticut and Jon, Nina and Jacob flying back to the UK. We didn’t leave till Sunday 22nd February – headed to the furthest point in Mainland USA, Key West!!
Wickenswanderings 