the riverbank, but they proved rather uncooperative. Ibis, wood storks, great
white heron, and lots of ‘gators lingered long enough to be photographed
however, identified not due to any expertise on our part but because we had a
glossy leaflet about the area's native fauna. The highlight of our drive however
was to see Joanie's by daylight - and open!
On reaching the visitor centre our first priority was to tell a ranger we had
spotted a wood stork. His apathetic reaction to our sighting was fairly
crushing, although understandable as we later saw loads of this 'rare' bird -
apparently it is not an endangered species at present. However, a second
ranger was impressed about the roseate spoonbills we had casually
photographed on the Space Coast. They are rare and shy, a fact borne out by
how hysterical our fellow tourists became when a spoonbill was spotted later,
about ten miles away as a reddy-pink speck!
Second on our agenda was, inevitably, food. After a quick look round
the facilities at this entrance to one of the country's largest National Parks we
realized we were going to go hungry - or die of heart attacks. The only food on
offer was crisps, and we already had our own in the van. In the end we had a
bizarre semi-healthy concoction of tuna dip with crisps followed by Oreo
cookies, and raisins.
The main attraction at Shark Valley is not its namesake, thankfully for my
phobic companion. Instead there is a 15 mile paved road through parts of the
park, which you can traverse by foot, bicycle or tram. We opted for the third
mode of transport due to a lack of time for the first option and a lack of