I enjoyed a great night’s sleep and dragged out a slow start to my morning. I re-organised the van into a one-girl-camp and managed to free up some under-bed space in the process which is always a bonus. I had a small breakfast, not really feeling hungry after all the good food I’d eaten over the weekend. As I was mucking around, a fellow camper approached, a lady in her 50s and her puppy and she offered me some yoghurt which was opened, but they were getting rid of because they had to go home on short notice due to a death in the family. I was grateful for the yoghurt and we had a quick chat before I wished her well with the family, sorry to hear of her loss.

I went into my office (the business room in the casino) and shared my photos from the weekend with Tuuli and did some blogging before leaving the over-airconditioned building to be back out in the heat. I only had one event planned for today and was looking forward to an early camp. I drove west along highway 41 to Shark Valley, another part of the Everglades. I’d heard good things about the 15 mile trail there from a few different people. I got there around lunch time and found that the car park was full and delays were expected inside the park so I joined a group of others in parking out on the highway. I offloaded my bike, made lunch, then rode in to the park, past the line of cars waiting for someone to leave in order to get in. The rangers made very sure I didn’t ride past, which I never intended to, I went up to the window and showed my pass to get in. I used the bathroom then rode past all the tourists waiting for the trolley tour.

I hadn’t gone ten meters when I saw my first gator of the day. The road followed a canal that was absolutely full of them. Lots of turtles and birds too. I was astounded at how close the gators were to the road and how non-fussed about people they seemed to be. The rangers must be confident in their placidness to allow people in such close contact with them. When I came across one that was facing away from me, I stopped for a photo and, risking a $5,000 fine, bent down to touch its tail. Arrghh! He didn’t move an inch, but I still felt a bit like a Steve Irwin.

The road was dead straight so it became monotonous after a while. I marvelled at the people walking it, they must’ve been bored out of their minds just walking in a straight line along tarmac. I stopped when there was a gator by the road facing me with its mouth wide open, just waiting for some unsuspecting victim to enter his trap. I stopped to take a photo and was disappointed when he closed his jaws, seemingly just to spite me. To further show his distaste for being photographed, he turned away from me and I swear I heard him purr. It may have been intended as a growl, but all I heard was a low, steady purrrrr.

I went on my way and soon enough I made it to the observation tower, another overrated feature of the Everglades. I was disappointed and off-put to see other bike riders locking their bikes at the base of the tower and that put me on edge about leaving my bike, so I stashed it in the bushes out of sight. The tower is another beautiful spot at sunset I’m sure, but in bright daylight, it looked out over a field of grass and unseen swamp below it. I didn’t stay long up there. I got my bike from the bushes and sit under the shade of a tree to have my wrap for lunch, enjoying the cool breeze that was doing its best to remain constant.

I rode back along the nearby road that was a little more windy that the way out but had less wildlife viewing to offer. My arse sore from my seat, I was just keen to get back to the car, it was a very boring ride by my standards, but I was still happy to have done it for all the gators I saw. There were still many people waiting for a trolley and the carpark was still full when I returned.

At the car, I got on the phone to the people that fixed my smashed phone screen last year because a friend of mine who works at Apple assured me that my blue-screen issue was not one from the factory. I was happy to discover they offered a six month warranty so I should be able to get it fixed at one of their stores in Florida. When I called the Florida store, they were less reassuring, but I won’t know until tomorrow.

I listened to an NPR politics podcast as I continued driving west, taking the scenic route through Big Cypress National Preserve. The first part was tarmac, but as soon as it turned into dirt road, there were alligators lining the streets! It was slow going with a speed limit low enough to protect the animals that clearly enjoyed the roadside as a lazing place, but I wasn’t rushing anywhere. If you were ever in the area and didn’t have time to do all the animal watching I’d done, this would be a good, quick alternative. I stopped for a snack and discovered that my phone screen had deteriorated to be so dark that I couldn’t see anything, so that was the end of using it, though thankfully I was able to finish my podcast. I’ll definitely see about getting it fixed tomorrow.

Without my phone, I had to guess where my freecampsites.net spot was, but I knew it was along a road within the preserve somewhere. I drove down a few different roads to scout and made a few alerting discoveries. At the first potential spot, I happened to notice a red-brown-black snake with its head up. He was only small, but his flickering tongue put me on edge. I looked at him for a bit from the safety of my car. At the second potential spot, I was startled by a huge snake carcus, all of its spinal bones still intact within the decomposed skin. Eww! I was glad for these warnings when I finally made camp on a side road along a swampy canal. I tread carefully and made sure I was parked where I could get out without being in grass.

It was a relatively early camp, around 4pm and unfortunately there was no place to mount my hammock, so I settled for opening all my doors to let the cool breeze in while I sat and read for the afternoon. As the sun was setting beautifully behind the trees, the clouds made dense by a fire I’d seen from the road earlier, I made pasta for dinner and, same as I’d had before, right on sun-down the mozzies came out in force. I shall have to learn to time things a little better. It means I was couped up in the van the rest of the night with the windows closed, killing the contained mozzies one by one. It does get stuffy and there’s no way I got them all before going to bed.