(Drivebycuriosity) - My wife are staying in Miami, the first travel since March 2020. Yesterday we drove to the Everglades, a national park one hour drive east of Miami. The park covers a protected area of swamp land. The rich shallow waters are home to ubiquitous life forms which benefit from the almost tropical climate. The ponds and natural water ways are home for many plants and wildlife - turning them into a nutritious soup for many residents of the Everglades. Sheer countless turtles, frogs, snakes and other little animals provide involuntary a rich diet for legion of birds and alligators.
We booked a tour with the Shark Valley Tram Tour company and could observe the wildlife comfortably from the wagon. Later we had a short hike along some of the gator pools, unbothered by the reptiles who seemed not to notice us.
Florida´s alligators (American alligators) alone are worth the drive to the park. The reptiles usually laid dormant in the water, pretending to sleep, waiting for their food to come. But we were lucky and could observe a kind of turf war (images above). We spotted a gator which pretended to sleep and was partly covered by water. Then another gator approached, a big male. The approacher accelerated his speed and swam, or paddled, towards his fellow. The attacked gator did not even try to defend himself and rather took flight. We watched both speeding away and they disappeared on the horizon.
The park has really big gators. There is a lookout tower, which can be approached by a spiraling bridge. Below this bridge we saw this impressive reptile.
Above more gator images. Fortunately the reptiles were all minding their business.
There are lots of bird who -like the gators - are preying on the rich swamp life, including frogs and turtles.
The mentioned tower gave us a nice overview.
The park has an amazing combination. Lush vegetation mixes ......
with ponds & swamp land.
To be continued
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