Norman did a great job keeping us on schedule despite a road accident that occurred on our road. Norman shared a lot of information and knowledge along the way. Also, we wanted to let you know that Norman does deserve a pony.
This was a wonderful tour. The guide was highly knowledgeable about the everglades history, botany and ecology. As we drove we learned about the Indians who live and lived in the everglades, the animals, the native and invasive plants and lots of interesting anecdotes. We drove across the state on highway 41, had an amazing airboat ride, stopped at a few places to just see the place and ended on the gulf side where we took a boat ride and saw many dolphins and birds plus just had a great time. The lunch was yummy. I had thought that we would head further south, but this trip was certainly a highlight.
My hotel was not on the pickup list, so I had to drive to the Flamingo gardens. The shuttle picked me up exactly on time. Our guide, Jason, gave us very interesting information. This guy really knew what he was talking about. Expect a lot of driving to the airboat trip and the boat trip. So, an entertaining guide comes in handy to make all that driving not a boring thing.
We were a small group of 7. We had the luck to have a smaller, less crowded air boat. We saw a lot of gaters, feet away from the boat, a lot of other wildlife (turtles and a lot of birds) and beautiful swamp vegetation.
Lunch was simple, but tasty. We received gator appetisers, tastes close to chicken. It has actually almost no taste.
A small hike in the cypress forest was a nice distraction. Jason explained about the cypress domes, pointed out beautiful wild flowers, giant grasshoppers (if you don’t pay attentions you would have missed them). Thanks to Jason I could take a picture of a brown non venomous snake.
The boat trip on 10.000 islands was relaxing. We saw dolphins, but they were not in an playful mood, they were feeding. Same for the manatees. These were not feeding, but they have to breath ever now and then. They came above water for about 2 seconds. Just not long enough for a decent picture.
The weather was beautiful and I spend a wonderful day, worth every $.