Everglades Magic!

The day of the long-anticipated Everglades Tour dawned blue and still. Down at the the river by 9am, and it was even beginning to warm up at this early hour.

Jumped aboard the ship boat and set off with our intrepid captain, Trevor. He's another of these Aussie men who love their job, love Australia, its flora and fauna, and are really good ambassadors for their country.

What a trip! It was glorious. I had popped in the night before to check that he didn't play 'muzak' having had the last evening cruise up the river rather spoilt by rock muzak coming out of tinny speakers on the boat!! He laughed and said he didn't. Jus' checkin'!

We sped up the wider parts of the river to get to the Everglades proper, and once there we went at snail's pace, possibly slower. It was magical. The boat had a front bit, with bars to hold on to, so I spent most of my time sitting out on the bonnet, watching this amazing scene drift by in silence.

The only sound was Trevor's voice now and again telling us some interesting fact or story, or pointing out the sea eagles or the ospreys' nest or pulling in for a close up of the huge python sunning himself on the bank.

We had morning tea once we were through the huge Lakes Cooroibah and Cootharaba. These lakes are only about knee deep, and we had to negotiate through a deeper part following markers. We could still see the bottom just inches away, in the 'deeper' part!

After morning tea, three fit young lassies on the tour paddled about 40 minutes in a canoe to the next stop - the famous Harry's Hut (or am I thinking of Harry's Bar?)

We had (briefly) thought about canoeing, but decided not to, but it did look tremendous fun, and not too strenuous. Mind you, on second thoughts, it might have been terribly embarrassing as we tried to keep up with the young ones! We met up with them again for our BBQ lunch, and they paddled back as well, with a wee tow for 10 minutes or so.

Lunch was another outdoor treat, this time with added wild life - a goanna came to check us out. He was at least a metre long, with a big blue tongue flicking out and in. I got a really good closeup of him, because he didn't exactly rush around, but I decided to blip the river and girls in the canoe. That's a bit of the bar on the front of the boat that I left in.

I loved today! Sitting on the front of the boat, watching this strange world and its beautiful reflections go by, in complete silence. I took about 250 photos!

Funnily enough, the three paddling girls slept all the way back!