Today we head for our last stop - New Smyrna Beach. On the way we stopped to walk on the Anhinga Trail. We saw the usual alligators
Cormorants, and of course anhingas which I didn’t bother photographing
A nice cardinal bromeliad
Some great blue herons
And this black skimmer that sat on the sidewalk the whole time we were there. I figured it must be injured but we couldn’t find anyone to ask about it.
We kayaked Buttonwood Canal this morning - paddling a tandem sit-a-top kayak for about 1 1/2 hours. The only wildlife we saw were a few tri-colored herons flying by. But it was a neat explore among the mangroves.
This morning we drove to the trail around Eco Pond and did the 1/2 mile walk. We were surprised at our surroundings. We had been there before hurricane Irma hit in 2017. Now it looks totally different.
After walking around the pond, we drove through the campground to the Coastal Prairie Trail and walked a bit on it. There is a lot of land known as the coastal prairie, formed when storm surge from the hurricane killed the mangroves. Now the land is covered with low plants that can grow in the salty soil that was left.
This afternoon we took the backcountry boat tour. It was much more interesting than the bay tour. We saw a 14’ crocodile swim in front of the boat. It headed for the docks and we saw it again after the boat ride.
The most interesting part of the ride was the canal into Coot Bay. We saw a young night heron and a couple more crocodiles.
This morning we walked west on the Guy Bradley Trail toward the campground. We were going to walk around Eco Pond but it was hot and we didn’t bring water, so we headed back to the lodge instead.
On the trail was this amazing tree - it is a palm tree completely surrounded by a strangler fig.
We took the boat ride into Florida Bay this afternoon. We saw pelicans, a reddish egret, caspian terns, and ospreys. Mostly we just rode around the bay, which wasn’t very exciting. The caspian tern is a new one for me. It is similar to a royal tern but its bill is heavier and redder than the royal terns and have a dark tip on the bill.
Today we did the long drive to Flamingo at the southern tip of the Everglades. The only stop of note was at Robert is Here fruit stand where we got key lime milkshakes. They were ok but not as great as we remembered. We are staying at the Lodge in Flamingo for the next 5 nights.
Since we waited too long to make a reservation for the glass bottom boat ride, we ended up paddling the Silver River in the morning then taking the 90 minutes glass bottom boat in the afternoon.
The paddle down the river was great as always. We paddled 5 miles downstream in rented kayaks then were picked up at Ray Wayside and transported back to the park.
The glass bottom boat ride was good too, but not as neat as the paddle. It was nice to be able to look down into all the springs.
Anhinga
Yesterday we drove 2 1/2 hours to Lorton, VA to get on the auto train. The ride was much smoother than last time and sleeping would have been fine if it hadn’t been for the very hard mattress. And when we got there at about 1:30, with boarding time at 3:00, we were told the only dinner time left was 9:00 PM. It turns out we needed to get there by 10:00 AM to get an earlier time. Not sure what we will do going back. Fortunately, the woman who managed our car brought us our dinner much earlier than that.
We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Silver Springs, FL.
I have finally finished the needlepoint cover for our piano bench. The new colors look much better in the room.
