Day 10: Midway Campground to Naples: REd - Grampies Go South Spring 2014 - CycleBlaze

January 14, 2014

Day 10: Midway Campground to Naples: REd

We got up at 5, very much still before dawn, and left by 6 with our rear flashers and front headlights on. There was a new dimension to the swamp in the dark. Mysterious splashings and ploppings and flappings accompanied us. Freakiest of all were the red eyes of the gators. With our lights we could spot each one, and they were all over the place. Fortunately, none came up on our side, they all were just hanging out across the ten feet of water or in the water.

I took out my camera to see if possibly these red eyes could be photographed. This is the Nikon12x zoom that we had to buy in Germany when the lens protecting shutters jammed on the previous one. So now I found the shutters jammed on this new one! Nikon, grrrr., you forgot to put your famous quality into this model.

Dawn in the swamp
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A hokey roadside attraction but this is a panther area
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The US smallest post office. There was little else to Ochopee. We were hoping for some food.
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The shutters would open enough to allow some photos, so for today we could carry on. As dawn came, we continued to pass lots of gators and birds of so many kinds. Now we approached the Fakahashee Strand. When I first saw this name in the Orchid Thief, it seemed so strange and remote. Now I see that it is a major and well known area. There is a Friends of the Fakahatchee and a Fakahatchee nature boardwalk, and a Fakahatchee Island. Now we have been able to even buy the Fakahatchee history book.

Just like in the book
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Fakahatchee history
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With the camera failing and no solution about how to do any cooking, we made the difficult decision to deviate from our planned route up hwy 29 to Immokalee, and bolt instead for Naples/Fort Meyers in search of gaz and/or stove and yet another new camera. This meant bucking a head wind, and leaving the swamp to enter the city.

So that's it for the Everglades, but it was fabulous, and more interesting than the Keys. Tomorrow it's the urban jungle.

See any gators
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Count the gators
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Bad wild camp site
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Dinner from a Mexican grocery
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Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 443 km (275 miles)

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