Exceptional Everglades

Two groups milled around the national parks station early that Thursday morning. The one much larger, dapper dressed folk were being politely dealt with by the NP ranger sorting them out for their day out on a motor boat excursion in the everglades. The other party loitering was a single Muppet. Not so dapper, with paddle in hand and Life jacket round shoulders. When the ranger finished off with the fore mentioned day trippers and turned to said paddler his demeanor changed from polite to joy. His enthusiasm in helping the lone paddler organise his itinerary, routing, overnight stays in the 10 000 islands Nat Park. It was clear where his passion lay. It certainly lit up my enthusiasm. No talk of the perils of the 'glades, gators and the like. 

Paddling the everglades was an exceptional adventure, exceeding my expectations by a country mile. Crossing the expanses of the Gulf, island hopping from key (Island) to key and then wandering through wide open water expanses or exceedingly narrow passages of the inland mangroves. It was magic. And I only touched a fraction of what it really had to offer. This being my first multiday kayaking trip in 30 years, it rekindled old memories of our canoeing trips down the Zambezi River during the mid '80s. There were plenty of parallels.

My 3 1/2 day sojourn made possible by a company conference in Miami and the timing was perfect for such a trip. Much earlier and it would have been scorching hot and wet, with the potential of Typhoons. Any later would have hit the high season and locations limited, maybe but certainly not the solitude I enjoyed. As it was, I never saw another canoe and only 4 motor boats passed me in that time. So the company I had was abundant dolphins, see why they're called the NFL Miami Dolphins, masses of bird life, especially out on the keys, a couple of manatees, and a few Gators to cap it all off. Fortunately having left my newly acquired fishing rod behind, unintentionally, the whopper I'd bragged about remained safe and the fresh pan fried fillet a mere dream, next time.

As soon as the Miami conference was confirmed the search was on for an accompanying adventure. It would be tough to top the Utah canyoning of last year. There really wasn't any hiking of significance in these parts, and I'd just done the Sierras not a month earlier. 

Looked into a bike touring gig that looked promising and then by chance came across a region of Florida called the 10000 islands. Like opening Pandora box there all of a sudden a wealth of information on kayaking around this region. Kayaking a great option; you can take more kit than a hike, as you don't have to carry it. On this trip did have to take all your water. The trick to an uneventful trip is good navigation and reading and using the tides. Having done neither on water that made all the more interesting for the new challenge. 

Had a basic idea; do a loop, couple days in the mangroves then head out to the open water when I was more comfortable and confident with the boat, the conditions, navigation and whatever else needed to be done. With the ranger at the national parks office we mapped out a trip that made better use of the tides. So it was out to the islands first; Pavilion key one of the farthest and largest. Then back into the Mangroves, farthest inland; Sweet Water Chickee. Then winding back to the start staying at Crooked Creek Chickee. (For those not in the know Chickee refers to the platforms constructed in the mangroves to park out on. 

By 9:30 boat hired, permit secured, four gallons of water loaded up, nosh in secure container (keep raccoon's out), and aye captain launch the boat. With a bit of cloud cover and gentle ripple on the water, conditions were perfect. Particularly welcome for relatively novice paddler. And with the outgoing tide made good progress winding my way out to the Gulf. This was too easy. Pulled into the side, on a mangrove Island, for a short break after an hour or two, but was quickly sent packing by the swarm of Mossies, swamp angles, as they're known here. I was getting the hang of this open water navigation, kept the nautical map between my legs and GPS round neck and started to get a feel of relating the 'landscape' to the map. Eventually hitting more open water after a couple of hour winding my way through the water ways. Not too surprisingly the wind picked up, it was a bit bouncy, not enough to get too concerned though. 

Hit the outer Keys by lunch and my first night stop, Pavilion Key by 4 ish. This was idyllic. Pristine lagoon on the one side, open sea the other separated by narrow beach of maybe 10 meters wide, where I pitch my tent in the middle. The seaside beach a mass of birds settling down for the night. As I approached they would take off pretty much together, triggered by the least courageous of the lot. Then circle round and land back couple meters up the beach, out of harm’s way, me. And being 5 year old at heart, this looked like fun so ran up and down the beach them critters circling round as I approached, coming back as I passed. All cussing and complaining about this latest intruder. Eventually we both soon settled down. After all it was sundowner time, so accompanied by a little drop off Argentinian Malbak to watch the most spectacular sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. Could life get any better? So did my best to capture the photo opportunity. With the 20 hour flight from Sydney catch up and a full day paddling was man down by 8. Which was a good thing? As soon as you moved out of the sea breeze the angels attacked with a vengeance. In these parts the wind is your friend.

If the sunset was a show, so was the sun rise over the lagoon side the following morning. And to add to the backdrop of the sunrise, the dolphins were out too for morning breakfast.

Faffed around too much only getting going by 10. However, by that time it was low tide so perfect for a run in back to the inland mangroves. Being low tide though it required a 50 meter wade in the mud to open water. And in the process must have dropped my glasses. Again, I'd done a similar thing in the High Sierras a month ago. 

Finally we were off to Sweet Water Chickee averaging between 3 to 5 km/hr. That was the case until I hit an oncoming tide for a section of the Hutson River. I'd been congratulating myself on my navigation prowess. Then became a little too lax with checking my GPS and all of a sudden found this against current paddling was in fact the taking me wrong way, not entirely, certainly it was the long way round. Dick head that will teach me and now GPS battery power was getting low, just when I really needed it to find my night stop over. You certainly wouldn't want to get into grief in these parts. Open water simply merges into the dense mangrove vegetation. 

Late afternoon the waters were like glass, reflecting the mangrove landscape above water. So of course tried to capture with a few pics.  I was disturbed by what I thought were a pod of dolphin that popped up in front of me. Except these critters grunted on surfacing, definitely no dolphin. Actually Manatees. Strangest of creatures. The Ranger said I might spot them up here.

Found the Chickee and once again it was my own for the night. These platforms, Chickee were located 15 meters in from the edge of the mangrove. They have two interconnected platforms with a shared porta loo in the middle. Just a fantastic idea. I set up shop and had a quick dip in the river to clean. Only then saw couple a gators slinking across the water’s surface 10 meter out. That was noted for future swims or maybe not.

Once again another magic sunset. Very much like the Zambezi canoe trips we used to do. And then the mossies came. And that called for a hasty retreat inside the tent for lock down. Come morning, coffee and breakfast consumed inside. Only making a bolter for the loo.

After two big paddling days this shorter section certainly was welcome relieve. Not as secluded as the last, Crooked Creek was closer to the main water thorough fare. And being closer to the edge of the mangroves, expected a mossie invasion. Fortunately the wind picked in the afternoon and we had a rain storm in the evening as the sunset. Giving us a monkeys wedding. Main sunset in the west while rain sweeping through from the east.

I needed an early start in the morning and take advantage of the early high tide. So was on the water by 6 am, still pitch dark. Used by bike lights to light up the way. And hopefully spot me some gator eyes lurking on the mangrove banks. None materialized. Once again another stunning sun rise though.

This day I made fantastic progress with the tide 6 to 7 km/hr. So was able to take the long way home following the narrow Taylor River back. If there was one element to the trip I hadn’t done, one box not ticked, was burrowing through the narrows of a Mangrove creek. Well that all changed. The Taylor River all but disappeared, and I was off the navigation map, so not too sure of the route. However there was a little gap opening in the thicket. So in I dived. Initially, for two k's I was against the current, leading me to think this was a dead end. It then turned; it was like a turbo booster. And I needed this kicker. At slower speeds the 'Angles' could keep up. I was being attacked from all sides. With the water current, the buggers were left for dead. So for the next several km, I wound through the mangroves, dodging overhangs, cutting way through the spider webs, disturbing the roosting birds, and wondering when I'd come face to face with a Gator minding its own business on the side of the bank. And if it were a big daddy, there would be no room for two of us in this narrow passage, fortunately no 'luck'. All in all it was magic. It opened up eventually and in 20 min was back where it all started 3 1/2 short days ago at the National Parks Rangers Station in Everglades City.

  

Day one - 20km

Day 2 - 26km

Day Three - 18km

Day four - 16km