Final Day! The beers had not too bad an effect, so once again I found myself at Bunche Beach at sunrise. Same deal as the prior day, however the tide was different by an hour and it simply was not as good as the ideal conditions simply did not last as long before the sun became too harsh. Nonetheless I got a few more images - given how many I posted from the prior day I'll mostly skip over these. Suffice to say that I had another fun couple of hours.
After a repeat of the breakfast and packing routine from the previous day I headed back across the Florida Panhandle, taking a different route through the upper Everglades - taking instead the road south, Route 29,that bisects the two main east-west crossings. I am glad that I did, it was a very quiet drive through the Fakahatchee Preserve and I was able to stop in numerous places for roadside birding which added Crested Caracara to the trip list. With time running out I made a short diversion to the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk. This was quite quiet in the middle of the day, but several Barred Owls were calling, and there was a large Alligator in the pond at the very end as well as a Pileated Woodpecker.
I had one final look at the Snail Kites at the small bend near Cooperstown and mid-afternoon handed in my rental car at Miami International for the early evening overnight flight back to London and my lovely desk at Canary Wharf. It had been another great trip with a good balance between birding and photography.
Trip List
Another great trip report. One thing I've often wondered about these trips is how your body clock deals with being in a different time zone for so short a time. When you get home, do you find it easy to return to work? I would imagine I'd need a week in bed.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm
For the east coast I usually get an evening flight, eat before I board and then refuse everything and go straight to sleep. Arriving in London early morning I then go straight to work. This means I can't fall asleep, and provided I then stay up until a normal time I find that I am OK the next morning. It is harder from the west coast. From Asia the flights typically leave really late evening, and arrive really early morning, so the same thing applies.
DeleteSome advice suggests that you should not drink alcohol if you want to avoid jetlag, but I think that's a load of rubbish - I find a nice meal with lots of drinks is extremely beneficial!
Oh, and the other secret to my success is to fly business class if I can....I'd rather pay the money than take an extra day of holiday. On this particular trip I didn't as it happens, but I don't remember feeling particularly worse for wear for the lack of flat bed, so perhaps not a false economy after all.
DeleteAmazing. I think I've commented before that one of the things I enjoy about these posts is that they are so far beyond anything I would ever do, or even dream of doing. I don't know anyone who does this sort of thing, and yet you make it sound almost matter of fact: popping off to Hawaii or Florida or wherever for a couple of days. Long may it continue (well, if we ever emerge from the current situation).
ReplyDeleteMalcolm
When this is all over I am going to go mad booking things up again.
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