The day after we watched the bats stream out of the Mulu caves my guide took me to Deer Cave. On the way we passed this dry riverbed. I was quite surprised
On the horizon are two of the landmarks my captain uses to navigate - the radio mast just left of center and a cement plant just to the right of the white cloud.
It looked to us as though the thunder storm ahead was moving away so my pilot set the airboat in motion once more and we bounced across the water and grass towards the clump of trees in the middle of yesterday's photo. In today's image you can see how the frequent passing of the airboats has worn a trail through the sawgrass.
On the horizon in the middle of this shot is a clump of trees that we were heading for but first we had to watch where the storm beyond it was going. Sitting atop an aluminum airboat in a huge flat expanse of wetlands is certainly not one of the recommended behaviors in the Boy Scout handbook for what to do in a thunderstorm!
The part of the Everglades we were exploring is the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area-Water Conservation Area 3B, according to Google Maps. Not the most romantic name. This corner of the everglades is mostly grassland but there are a few islands dotted here and there that stand a few feet higher than the surrounding land.
Having crossed an expanse of inundated grassland, we turned into a firebreak canal in search of some alligators and that was when I got the shot below. It's a handheld 3-shot, 4EV HDR, finished in a beta version of onOne Software's Perfect Photo Suite 7, which is due for general release on October 31!.