A TOUR GUIDES VEIW OF OTHER ECO-TOURS

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

Some of you who read my monthly column have asked me about other ecological tours in The Everglades so here is my answer. I grew up on the Tamiami Trail and I have been living on the eastern edge of The Everglades for the last 37 years. I have been to all of the major tour companies south of Lake Okeechobee and one of the best tours besides my own is available at Billie Swamp Safari on the Seminole Indian Reservation just north of I-75 (Alligator Alley). They have a great airboat tour, as well as swamp buggy rides.

When you go to Billie’s, plan to spend the day, because there’s lots of things to do. When you arrive you can enter through the main gate or through the gift shop. The shop has everything you need from clothing to books, videos, souvenirs and snacks. As you leave the gift shop entering the main grounds, you’ll see a lot of different chickee huts (a traditional Indian dwelling made with cypress wood and palm fronds) with something different under each one. One chickee is for story telling, where you will learn about Indian legends and folklore. Some of the chickees are for sleeping, because you can spend the night at Billie Swamp Safari. The night tours at Billie Swamp Safari are outstanding. There is a chickee that has the birds of prey show presented by Ray Becerra and Kim Royal, experts in the art of falconry. This show is not to be missed. In the birds of prey show you’ll learn the habits of the birds and watch Ray and Kim free fly their birds to show you how they hunt. Ray and Kim love their birds and the affection shown between them proves that. Ray, Kim and I share in the belief that if your animals don’t love you and you don’t love them, then you can’t trust them. I have worked with and trained a lot of animals and if there is no LOVE there is no TRUST!

On the main grounds at Billie Swamp Safari, you can also find the alligator pit; alligator handling is always exciting, fun and dangerous. Gator John (John Kenyon) and Swamp Owl demonstraight how to catch alligators bare handed and these guys are two of the best alligator handlers in the area. John also gives reptile shows in the herpetarium. Just last month I had a chance to sit and talk with Gator John about his life and how he began working with reptiles. John had always been fascinated with reptiles, even as a child. As most kids that like reptiles, John had snakes, frogs and lizards. One day, a good friend of John’s told him that Chief Billie from Billie Swamp Safari needed help with his reptile exhibit. It didn’t take long for John to make up his mind about what he wanted to do and now he happily makes his living as an expert on reptiles.

John just recently made headline news when he took one of his alligators to New York City as a publicity stunt for an advertising campaign. John also made the news again, recently, when a copperhead snake bit him, causing a brief stay in the hospital for observation. We are happy to say John is going to be ok.

Of course there is a nice restaurant at Billie Swamp Safari. The restaurant is very peaceful, with big bay windows that let you look out on the airboat trail and the beautiful cypress swamp. The menu has traditional Indian dishes like Indian fry bread and gator tail or frog legs. For those that are not into new types of food you can have a regular old cheeseburger (my favorite).

The main attractions at Billie Swamp Safari are the AIRBOAT and SWAMP BUGGY rides. I really like their airboat tour because Billie Swamp Safari is located so much farther north and west than Gator Park, I get to see an entirely different part of The Everglades than what I see every day on my own tours at Gator Park. Their airboat tour begins on a manmade channel where they really show you what an airboat can do. After a few too brief moments of a fast cruise up the channel with a few hairpin turns just for fun the ride slows down and enters the cypress forest. It is so incredibly beautiful in the cypress forest that it seems almost unworldly. As far as swamp buggy rides go, I’ve been on almost all of the swamp buggy rides in south Florida and Billie’s is the best. Their buggy ride takes you into an animal preserve of over 2000 acres. As you travel trough the preserve you pass over large expanses of open grass prairie where you may see a white tail deer feeding or a large pack of wild pigs. Leaving the grass prairie the buggy enters a hardwood hammock. The hammock is mostly dry, high ground that is thickly vegetated. As you pass trough the hammock you will see giant oak and cypress trees and many other beautiful plants. Your tour guide will answer any questions that you may have, telling you about the aquatic plants and the trees that grow out of the water and describing the everything as you go along.

In the middle of the tour, you will come to a pit where "Superman" lives. Superman is an alligator that measures 14 feet 10 inches long. His name suits him. One of these days, hopefully, Chief Billie will give John or Ray permission to let me get in close to Superman (Please, Chief). As you leave the alligator pits you re-enter the hardwood hammock. The hammocks are swampy, but the swamp buggy’s giant tires take it through the 1 to 4 feet of water like nothing.

While in the cypress swamp the tour guide will tell you stories of how the Indians lived in and would fight in the cypress swamp.

One thing you may notice during the ride is that the dirt road through the hammocks and swamp is never straight. There is an historic reason for this. The Indians always made turns in their trails from the times of the Seminole wars so that soldiers trying to follow them would have a hard time seeing where the Indians were going. All of the tricks the Indians used must have worked really well, because the army finally gave up and went home. They just couldn’t keep up with the Seminoles.

The ride ends back at the lodge where the whole staff goes out of their way to make sure that your trip to Billie Swamp Safari will be one you will never forget. When you get back to the lodge you may want to stretch your legs and a good way to do that is to check out the panther exhibits. Chief Billie has the most awesome panther exhibits. The cats live in giant cages with plenty of room to roam and they are all healthy and happy. Because I trained a panther named Caloosa, who became my best friend, I can tell if the cats are happy or not.

If you want to see even more of the cypress swamp, you can take a walk on the nature trail, a wooden catwalk that twists and turns through the forest. The catwalk is a peaceful place to sit down and just relax (there are benches) surrounded by tall cypress trees, willow trees and live oak.

Billie swamp safari is a great place to spend a whole day or more.

I hope this will help you decide to come to Florida and when you do, please come to The Everglades and have fun.

Once again thanks for coming to see our award winning web site. Come see us often.

REMEMBER, NATURE RULES!!!

Glenn Wilsey Sr. (Gatorman)

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