Doug keeps commenting about the fact that it took me 10 years to take him to Québec City, well well! It took him over 11 years to take me to the Everglades, where I’ve been wanting to go since I moved to Florida!

We left the Tampa area and drove to our campground in Naples. Space is at a premium in Naples, the proof is in the pudding, look at the pictures!

We had to back up the coach between the cement slab and the power post, and the total clearance was 3″! Doug did it like a pro! Incredibly enough, people do spend the winter in this campground, as cramped as it is. I guess we are spoiled.

It was now time to go visit the Everglades, finally!

The Everglades are a vast territory watered by tropical summer rains, which floods the prairies and Cypress strands before flowing slowly to the south. The drainage is slow and creatures great and small have learned to depend on it. The land slopes only two inches per mile to the Gulf of Mexico, causing a delayed drainage of the wet season’s watery bounty. The gradual drainage extends the wet season by two or three months after the rains taper off in October. It provides a steady mix of fresh and salt water in the estuaries along the coast of the Everglades National Park. This nutrient rich mix supports marine animals such as pink shrimp, snook and snapper, all important to Florida’s fishing industry.

Although the importance of this ecosystem was always clear to it’s inhabitants, mankind (as always) was slow to realize it, and tried to exploit the land for its resources. Grand schemes sought to drain vast regions, meandering rivers were gutted to straight canals and saw grass prairies became sugar cane and citrus plantations. Loggers came and cut the giant cypress trees almost to extinction. Oil rigs came, land speculators descended. Then came roads and drainage canals that parched extensive tracts. The threat posed by this over-exploitation finally resulted in the establishment of the Big Cypress National Park in 1970, which encompasses 2400 square miles of subtropical swamp, surrounded by the Everglades National Park. Now Florida is very active in the preservation of the natural habitats of the Everglades.

The Seminoles Indians were pushed into the Everglades during the war against them, and learned to survive in this environment. They are the only tribe who never signed a peace treaty with the United States. They have their own government and are sovereign in their territory.

We went to Billie’s Swamp Safari, right in the middle of Seminole territory for our tour of the Everglades.

We took an air-boat tour and spotted a lot of wildlife.