The next day I drove early morning to Shark Valley. This visitor center is at the center of what are called the historical Everglades but now it is practically the northern entrance. There is a single 15 mile biking trail at this visitor center. You can rent a bike for $9 per hour which is what I did. Along the way to Shark Valley you can see a lot of airboat tour advertisement which I was tempted to try, but because of the cold it was unlikely that I’ll be able to see much.

At the center you could see a few tram cars for people who did not want to bike and just wanted to enjoy the scenery. I was the first person to rent a bike, the bike was an old single gear [?? some handle] styled bike where you had to pedal backwards to make it stop. This was quite annoying and took me a long time to get accustomed to, but it doesn’t cause too much discomfort.

Biking

The trail itself is completely flat (being in a swamp) and runs parallel to a small creek. Close to the entrance this creek is densely packed with birds of all kinds, a bird watcher’s paradise. I found myself taking a few photos of birds acting out, but mostly just trying to clear my mind and enjoy the bike ride completely alone through this vast expanse, starting super early has it’s advantages. The experience is hypnotic, the trail winds a little but more or less it’s nature does not change, you lose a sense of time and are mostly biking on autopilot. The bike ride is filled with complete silence. There is an occasional bird that crows but mostly it’s just you, the wind and the grass.

At the halfway point on the trail is an old solitary observation tower with greying walls which you can start seeing from quite some distance away. Perched at the top of the tower were a few vultures. The view from the top is very mind numbing. There are miles and miles of grass just flowing around you, you start seeing why the Everglades is called the River of Grass, the only human thing is the biking trails cutting through the grass.

On my way back the wind got intense and it started getting mildly uncomfortable. Then came the drizzle and now I could hear the howl of the wind. I was wearing a jacket so I had a little protection but it was turning out to be less and less useful. My hands were getting numb because of the cold. Fortunately I had my convenient water pack from which I could sip water without stopping. I was biking against the wind and soon it became so intense that I had no option but to stop. This happened several times along the ride, I would debate with myself if I should give up and hitch a ride from one of the trams that passed through every hour, thankfully I did not. But I was in a very bad shape, there was no way of telling how far the end was of it the wind and the rain would get any stronger. I had been skipping meals so I wasn’t in a good shape either. I was panting and huffing and puffing, there was sweat and phlegm, and I would have to occasionally stop and cajole myself to go on.

And after a treacherous two hours I saw the visitor center. I had made it through. I was shaking when I stopped my bike, my hands were cold and numb and it was agonizing to take my credit card out of my wallet. I just sat in my car for a few minutes and turned on the heat to max letting the warmth get back in my body and my heart to stop pounding. The sky was completely dark now and there was nothing to be done for the rest of the day.

The bike ride was a very cathartic experience for me, both physically, mentally, and might I say spiritually. How rare are the occasions on which we push ourselves to the limits of our abilities? In these moments of uncertainty and anguish you learn a lot about yourself, these are the rare moments of complete concentration when your survival instinct frees you of all your worries and you truly become yourself. And when you survive through this you feel a bit more human, you feel connected to the intrepid ancestors who braved their ways though unknown lands. When we learn about Nature we also learn about ourselves.