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Karen's Travels
It's been about 90 degrees here today - I hear it is still warm in England. Long may it last! Have just come off the beach - can't keep out of the water! We went to the Everglades National Park in Ft Lauderdale this morning - the world's largest river of grass. Our first activity was to take an airboat ride along the river - we had to wear earplugs when the boat accelerated, due to the excessive noise. The boat is only a few inches about the water and our entertaining guide warned those sitting in the middle seats that when alligators jump on board, it's the middle people who are attacked first! We were not allowed to dangle our hands in the water for obvious reasons. Along the way, I saw two or three turtles in the water and one young alligator, his face and body just floating above the water. Apparently, it is the nesting season for female alligators so we were advised that we might not see many in their natural habitat. Other wildlife living in the park inculde: a variety of snakes, some venemous; spiders, scorpions, deer, black bear and puma cats. Our guide explained that in Florida lots of people keep exotic pets and when pythons become too big to handle, people release them into the Everglades and they are becoming a problem as they grow to a great size. One ranger found a huge python which had attempted to eat a small alligator! The alligator had suffocated and the snake was split apart by the effort. There is a program now to kill the pythons but they are difficult to find in 4.5 million acres! Alligators are smaller and less aggressive than crocodiles; they have a set of 80 teeth which they replace when lost. Over a lifetime, I think he said an alligator will have 500 teeth! After boat trip, we saw a 'wildlife show' or a ranger showing us a range of animals: scorpion, skunk, baby crocodile, a young alligator called Larry which you could hold for $2 and a baby puma cat who was very cute. He showed us how to disable an alligator by sitting on its back, pulling its neck back and clamping your hands around its jaws. A trained parrot took your money and put it in a pot! There were other animals around the site to look at such as peacocks and snakes in cages. I saw a group of young alligators sleeping in a cool pool. Our trip was only half a day so it went quite quickly, but it was great to actually see an alligator in the river - we were lucky. Well, that's all for today. Looks like we won't be able to get to the Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow, so will probably explore this area - there is an aquarium nearby - then we leave for Key West at 7am on Wednesday. Will probably write again once we are there. Love to all.
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