Now that she's back in the lower 48, Catkim called in her promised graduation present: to go canoeing in the Okefenokee Wilderness. She left hubby back in Fort Benning, and drove down to Grandma's. The next morning she and I spent an extraordinarily enjoyable day exploring my old stompin' grounds, the Suwanee Canal area of the Land of the Trembling Earth, south of Folkston.
Below: Yes, he's real. Yes, he's alive. No, there's no fence or anything. This is the wilderness. We came a lot closer to many of them, but I didn't get pics from the back of the canoe -- I kept the paddle in my hand for safety purposes in case we had to skedaddle or something. Cat has some great pics of the lizards up close and personal.
This was one of the bigger ones we saw. He's probably about 12 feet long, I'd estimate. This is the entrance to Chesser Prairie. Notice how low the water level is, even for December.
Below: Oh, carry me baaack, to the lone prair-ieee.
The pictures don't do justice to the wonderment out there, miles and miles and miles away from any civilization. This pic is taken just outside of six-mile hammock...
...where we stopped for lunch. We only saw two other people, both fishermen, all day long.
Below: Open water of the canal. It's only about two feet deep here. Gators on both banks all up and down this 3-mile stretch. Cat got some great pics of a pair of raccoons and a close-up of a green heron.
Gorgeous bald cypress trees standing in the water. They are one of only a handful of conifers that lose their needles in the autumn.
The call of the wild. Egrets, herons, kingfishers, eagles, we saw it all. Except snakes.
Spanish moss. Yes, that's a gator at the water's edge. We saw over 100 of them in the first hour and a half (within a mile and a half of starting out), then we quit counting...
It was cool (about 60 degrees) and bright sunshine, perfect weather for gators to come out of the water and sun themselves.
And so they did.
Below: Yes, he's real. Yes, he's alive. No, there's no fence or anything. This is the wilderness. We came a lot closer to many of them, but I didn't get pics from the back of the canoe -- I kept the paddle in my hand for safety purposes in case we had to skedaddle or something. Cat has some great pics of the lizards up close and personal.
This was one of the bigger ones we saw. He's probably about 12 feet long, I'd estimate. This is the entrance to Chesser Prairie. Notice how low the water level is, even for December.
Below: Oh, carry me baaack, to the lone prair-ieee.
The pictures don't do justice to the wonderment out there, miles and miles and miles away from any civilization. This pic is taken just outside of six-mile hammock...
...where we stopped for lunch. We only saw two other people, both fishermen, all day long.
Below: Open water of the canal. It's only about two feet deep here. Gators on both banks all up and down this 3-mile stretch. Cat got some great pics of a pair of raccoons and a close-up of a green heron.
Gorgeous bald cypress trees standing in the water. They are one of only a handful of conifers that lose their needles in the autumn.
The call of the wild. Egrets, herons, kingfishers, eagles, we saw it all. Except snakes. 
Spanish moss. Yes, that's a gator at the water's edge. We saw over 100 of them in the first hour and a half (within a mile and a half of starting out), then we quit counting...
It was cool (about 60 degrees) and bright sunshine, perfect weather for gators to come out of the water and sun themselves.
And so they did. 
1 comment:
Ok, I want to go. Only if I can take a handgun or two with me though!
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