Temp: 27.9°c

Water pH: 6.4
Temp: 19.5°c

Today we drove down Alligator Alley and there was a inter van competition to see who could count the most. Our total was around 60 alligators.

Halfway through the journey into Panther territory, illness overcame me. I have no idea what caused it. I have a hunch it was a breakfast burrito (shame as it tasted great), but could have been a bug. I then proceeded to throw up every half an hour and feel totally fine in-between this was very annoying. On the upside I didn’t miss any panthers. Not a single one was seen on the road supposedly where the most sightings occur.

While suffering I managed to still go on the treat of the day a trip round the Everglades on an airboat. Not the wisest thing to do but I was determined to do this once in a lifetime opportunity and oh it was worth it! We set off slow and I was panicking about throwing up but as soon as we left the channel the driver put his metaphorical foot down and launched the boat forward at high speed. We went from a narrow river channel to a large wetland grass environment in minutes where we saw various birds. We proceeded to do several drift like turns, like those you would expect in a movie.

We moved to one of the manmade canals that is deeper than the main areas of the Everglades. This was an area where the guide knew where the alligators would be that he had given names. I think one was called something like Derek but I can’t be sure. After a fair amount of whistling he got Derek to show his face the guide proceeded to give a brief talk about him, I was more focused on not throwing up in gator infested water! Leaving Derek and his gator gang behind we returned back to the dock, where the rest of the students went for a brief talk from one of the guide people (very touristy), they also got to hold a baby gator. Unfortunately, when everyone else was having a great time holding a baby alligator (very jealous) I was incredibly sick the boat trip had taken the last of my energy I can’t remember too much after that besides sleeping on the long journey back broken up by a brief vomit.

On arrival back at the Vesta Field Station, Christian suggested as we were early that we go canoeing, having just purged my stomach for the last time I felt it would be worth the risk and it was! We saw various mangrove dwelling organisms including a Pileated Woodpecker.

The second video is of us observing a mangrove crab.

I didn’t even make the nights debrief I was so exhausted.

(Hope you enjoyed the details of the 24 hour plague, I was not the first or the last to suffer.)