January 27-29, 2018 Everglades National Park, Florida

Welcome to the unofficial mosquito capital of Everglades National park. Out of the 43 species of mosquitoes only 13 species bite people.  Flamingo is the best place to test mosquito repellent. In days gone by when the ‘skeets’ were bad old timers in Flamingo would say “ you can swing a pint cup in the air and get a quart of mosquitoes”. Fortunately for us the Mosquito meter has it in the enjoyable range right now. They have not been bothering us.Flamingo visitors center. The rest of the building is closed from hurricane Irma damage.  Irma made landfall with winds of 142 mph and 3-5 foot storm surge.  

Osprey, American crocodile- this is the only place in the USA they live, manatee’s live in the bay. Wood storks flying over head. Osprey on a nest, black night shade  flowers , yellow flower with a butterfly and a tent in the campground in the wind today.

These maps show the area here. We are at the red arrow. The right map shows all of the waterways and campsites here.  Average trip duration by motorboat from Flamingo to Everglades city on the inland water way is 7 hrs, by canoe 9 days. Sunset tonight. 

Another sunset from camp.  Flamingo Visitors center from the bay. The cloud looks like a plume of smoke, but it is only a cloud. John paddling close to shore.  We then paddled up the Buttonwood canal, no wind there.

80’s and less windy than most of the week. We decided to try paddling Florida Bay, which is between the Everglades and the keys. There were lots of birds, but it was rough, so we didn’t go very far. Hurricane Irma blew all the sea grass off the bay floor and left a layer of mud, so the water is murky, rather than the sky blue color it usually is. The ranger said it could take a couple years for it to settle out and the grass to re grow. Little blue heron, great egret flying away, great blue heron, pelican and a hibiscus flower. I paddled up to the dock in the marina and there were all these sea gulls lined up looking at me, like my fan club. Below them is a big alligator. We saw this one when we paddled up the Buttonwood canal and when we paddled back. He hadn’t moved. 

The bay was too rough so we came back in and paddled up the Buttonwood Canal instead. Big mangrove tree with it’s ‘prop’ roots.

John at lunch. There was no solid ground so we ate sitting in the boats.The almost full  blue moon in sunset. The blue moon is the second full moon in a month or 13th in one year. The full moon is  still a couple days away. 

Sunset from camp.