Easy morning, then after lunch here we went to Six Mile Cypress Slough in Ft. Myers, about 45 minutes away. It's one of our favorite places to see gators, big turtles, and water birds. There is a 1.2 mile boardwalk through the woods with 3 small ponds. At the beginning, there is a large pond with two rafts in the middle, which always have turtles, anhingas, and cormorants on them, and sometimes alligators. The water in the slough is not stagnant but flows very slowly to the southwest, eventually emptying into Estero Bay. The whole thing is 2500 acres, but the trail allows views of about 80 acres of the park. Epiphytes (commonly called airplants) are plants that grow upon another plant, but are not parasitic - they draw their food/energy from the air. Their seeds settle in lots of places (even on high line wires) and we see a lot on tree trunks in the slough. On the way back to the resort, we stopped at the Sun Harvest store for a free taste of juices (we like the strawberry-orange one) and also for a soft serve orange & vanilla twist cone. (Again, the diet suffers a little!) Back to the resort for a lite supper.
Monday - Weather: high 77, low 53. Mostly sunny. Wind ENE 15 mph.
Mid-morning we went to the rec room for cofee, donuts, and a resort meeting. The lady from the office gave some information about the area, especially restaurants, and then Ed, the resort manager, gave the owners information about the use of maintenance fees, etc. He talked a lot about the lawsuit pending, with a trial coming in March. About 10 years ago, a fire destroyed the north wing of the resort. The insurance company wants to pay about $250,000 and the resort wants $2 million, which is what they spent on rebuilding. It's much more complicated than that, and has been going on for years, but a jury trial is finally coming soon. After lunch here, we went for a walk to the south for over an hour. The lagoon continues to the south for about 20 minutes, then there is a very wide beach, and across an inlet is Lovers Key State Park. A nice walk, part of it through sea oats and grasses. For supper we met the Ahearns and the Sands at the Sandy Parrot, which is close to where we used to park the 5th wheel trailer. Nice meal, but the loud music made it difficult to talk, except to the person next to you. We did have a good time with old friends, and we hope to get together again, including the Haltermans.
AT SIX MILE CYPRESS SLOUGH
(pictures taken by Linda)
Alligator on the shore of the big pond.
Is he smiling for the camera?
Night heron sleeping at the first small pond.
Anhinga drying its feathers in the sun. They are similar to a cormorant, but their bill is very pointed. Cormorant's bill has a hook at the end. Anhingas only are in the south, cormorants are all over, including the IL river.
A flock of ibis sleeping in the sun.
From left: turtle, 2 snowy egrets, and an ibis.
Neat relection in the water.
Lots of kinds of turtles in the ponds. Some are very large.
Two different kinds close up.
An example of an airplant. It looks like it's glued to the tree.
The white spots are lichen. Looks like someone dabbed some paint on it.
Another pretty airplant.
Sunset from in front of our unit. Not many clouds tonight.
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