The Everglades

At the Everglades National Park's Royal Palm Visitor Centre, the vultures are so brave that the parks service supplies blue tarps to protect parked cars.

The Anhinga Trail, departing from this spot, was a great little boardwalk and cement path looping past anhinga and cormorant diving birds and their nests, plus alligators, turtles and fish aplenty.

The pa-hay-okee overlook, further along the main road, was an incredibly short boardwalk and tower looking over a dwarf cypress 'forest'.

The Rock Reef Pass, just prior to the overlook, was a massive three feet above sea level!

After lunch at the Flamingo Visitor Center's cafe, looking out on to Florida Bay, we backtracked, stopping at numerous prairie overlooks.

The following day, taking the Tamiami Trail westwards across the northern reaches of the National Park, we stopped in at the Big Cypress National Preserve's eastern visitor center.

Here we absolutely hit the jackpot, with more alligators, birds and fish visible in that section of the Tamiami Canal than we had ever seen anywhere else previously.