20 Jun 2023
Despite getting in late last night, there would be no sleeping in for me- I had booked a morning kayak tour at the Padding Center, which was a convenient 20 minute drive from our hotel:
I’ve kayaked a handful of times, but figured since this was a new-to-me area, a guided tour would be more fun.
Our guide, Alex, was super-knowledgeable and pointed out so many things I would have missed if I just paddled around on my own, like orchids that only bloom in June. Unfortunately, when I tipped my camera up to snap a picture, my sunglasses tumbled off my head and into the water. I tried to grab them but they sank quickly out of reach. To make matters worse, my picture of the orchids was out of focus so my sunglasses were sacrificed for nothing. Lame.
I did, however, find this awesome deck ladder:
Our group consisted of me and 2 other families- one with older kids, who looked like they knew what they were doing, and one with younger kids, who definitely did not, but Alex did an awesome job of keeping us together without making the less experienced people feel bad:
The creek started out pretty wide, with a wide variety of trees and flora. As we rounded a bend, we could hear a bird making quite a ruckus and Alex pointed out this osprey nest:
We had just missed one of the parents coming by with food (hence all the squawking), but the two babies were visible and quite active:
They aren’t flying yet- just hopping and climbing from limb to limb, but soon, they’ll start testing their wings!
Shingle Creek is the northernmost headwater of the Everglades:
Eventually, this water will flow over 200 miles south to join the wetlands of southern Florida.
Proof I was here:
I kept spotting these clusters of eggs and asked Alex if they were spider eggs (and really hoped they weren’t!):
Turns out these are snail eggs!
About halfway through, we stopped for a water break and spotted several fishes swimming under our kayaks. I had a waterproof pouch for my phone and tried to snap some pictures but the only one that came close to turning out was this guy:
And yes, the water is a rather orange- this is due to the tannins in the water caused by decaying vegetation.
We did a bit of “off-roading”, taking this tight, narrow path back:
I spotted several turtles throughout the trip, including these two sunning themselves:
And Alex knew a spot where a female gator sometimes lurks, so we checked it out and found this gal chilling in the water:
She tolerated us for a few minutes, then ducked back under the water.
It started raining on our way back, though I think I got more wet splashing myself than I did from the rain- I’m not a great kayaker (yet!).
Back on shore, Alex brought out a brown watersnake!
They can sometimes be spotted along the kayak trail, though we didn’t see any in the wild on this trip.
Aren’t his markings pretty?! He has a really pretty underside too, but I couldn’t get a good shot of it. I did, however, take this stellar snake-selfie!
Orchids!!!
If I had known I could find orchids from land, I wouldn’t have bothered trying to shoot them from my kayak.
These are butterfly orchids- they grow on trees with rough bark, like this oak:
They bloom for only a few weeks around June:
I also found this cypress with tiny fruits forming on it!
There were a few trails in the Shingle Creek area I was planning on hiking after the kayak tour, but the rain kind of put a damper on that, so new plan: stop at Walmart for some new sunglasses and make a Disney Springs run for some caffeine.
I was planning on just grabbing a cold brew, but then I discovered this Espresso Affogato:
Espresso poured over gelato, in this case, coffee gelato 🙂 It was surprisingly creamy- the sweetness of the gelato cut the bitterness of the espresso nicely. I also found a scone, but it was disappointing, so no picture.
I was also in the mood for something frozen, so I tried this Orange Dole Whip old-fashioned:
Pretty tasty and definitely hit the spot on this hot, muggy day. Unfortunately, another batch of rain rolled in, bringing storms with it, so I headed back to our room and called it an early night.
