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Our Everglades Experience – Part III
We still felt slightly unsure about whether we should be there, or whether The Rod and Gun Club was just for members, but within a few minutes a waitress approached us with some menus and asked if we wanted anything to drink. We gave our order and were then asked whether we wanted soup or salad – this appeared to be a compulsory extra, albeit included within the price.
The crab cake starters arrived fairly quickly, and things really began to look up. I have had many a crab cake in my time, in different parts of the world, and I can honestly say that these were the best crab cakes that I have ever had. Really fresh ingredients cooked to perfection. My main course of blackened grouper was almost as good, but perhaps not quite as good as my wife’s main course of prawns. Beautiful big, juicy and tasty prawns – and I did taste one of them, or maybe two, or was it three?
The service was good and the food was excellent, as was the view. We left thoroughly satiated and even dared to do some sightseeing on the way out, as we walked past the snooker table and the various animal trophies on the wall – just how you would imagine a typical country gentlemen’s club.
After breakfast the next morning, we made the short trip to the Everglades Visitor Centre, which is located on the outskirts of the town, and which includes a very good information centre staffed by knowledgeable wardens. You can book various kinds of boat trips from the centre and we decided to take a one and a half hour trip around the Ten Thousand Islands. We passed by a couple of osprey nests, with young, saw a variety of water birds, and had a playful encounter with a group of bottle nosed dolphins.
In the afternoon we visited Big Cypress Bend, which is located just off the US 41 (the Tamiami Trail) to the west of Everglades City. This is a nature conservation area with a boardwalk through woodland, which terminates at a small pool occupied by alligators and various snakes. There is plenty of birdlife to see and along the way we passed the nests of a red-shouldered hawk on one side, and a bald eagle on the other side. We were also lucky enough to stumble upon some otters playing in a small brook.
Please continue to read our report of the Everglades in the fourth section of our reviewViewed 47661 times.
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