So we decided to take a break from the beach, our decision helped along by the overnight rain and cloudy skies, plus the decidedly murky forecast for the day that turned out to be completely wrong, and head out to see some nature, of which regular readers will know we are big fans.
Our choice for our nature getaway – if you have not been keeping up, we are currently in southwest Florida – was Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, specifically Janes Scenic Drive. This is a beautiful if unpaved 11-mile road through, basically, a ginormous swamp, otherwise known as the Everglades.
The signs on the drive boast that you might see such wildlife as alligators (it’s the Everglades, duh), bears, snakes, otters, birds and the like. We did see lots of birds – egrets, herons, vultures, others that were white and grayish, big ones and smaller ones, and one who seemed to sadly have some sort of wing defect and who just sort of hopped, skipped, and jumped but couldn’t quite fly down the muddy road who we felt really sorry for but at least didn’t run over.
What we did not see was any of the other aforementioned wildlife, so we bagged the other 8 miles of the drive, turned around, and drove to the park’s scenic boardwalk, a half-mile walk or so into the swamp where you could get up close and personal with all those swamp critters we didn’t see on our road trip.
We gamely started slip-sliding down the muddy trail to the boardwalk, eagerly anticipating coming upon the odd alligator or python or turtle. Alas, a hundred yards in and all we encountered were swarms of pesky mosquitoes – I killed three with one swat – and, with blood on our hands, we decided to make a hasty – well as hasty as we could in the slippery conditions – retreat.
So our attempted encounter with the native wildlife was disappointing until later, when F wisely pointed out that, personally, she was perfectly fine with not encountering an alligator or bear or something slithery while on a trail. I, of course, put her trepidation down to the fact that she knew I could outpace her back to the safety of the car.
Not to be outdone by our aborted nature outing, we headed into the real wilderness – the city – to do some shopping.
Talk about your wildlife. People madly pushing and shoving and almost running you over in shopping carts – and that was just in the parking lot. Being inside the store made us appreciate the great outdoors, except for the mosquitoes, although at that point it was open to debate as to which was more annoying, the shoppers or the skeeters. The only thing civilized was the air conditioning, although I thought the valet parking at one of the shopping malls we drove by was an interesting touch.
Thankfully, we concluded our necessary shopping and bolted from the city; okay, actually it was pretty stop and start bolting what with all the traffic and hitting every stop light, but you get the idea.
It was with great relief that we got back to our little outpost on our peaceful and calm little island where the wildlife consists mostly of miniature owls and burrowing turtles and leaping dolphins and diving pelicans and fellow beach lovers and realized that, hey, perhaps nature and civilization both need to be taken in moderation.
Or at least with some bug spray.