I should have known that yesterday’s post would anger the fates. After stumbling upon that once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, we grabbed paddle and canoe, confident that pressing deep into the Everglade’s watery world would yield even greater discoveries. We were wrong. Surprisingly we saw very little in the way of wildlife; almost none. Clearly Mother Nature is avenging yesterday’s hubris. No matter. We had a great time anyway, so screw her (I’m obviously a slow learner).

Our seven-mile paddle wound us through difficult-to-navigate mangrove swamps and out into the wide open vistas of shallow water lakes. The aptly named Mud Lake was so shallow that our paddle strokes kicked up a cascade of tannish-brown sediment that looked exactly like a pint of Guinness settling in an icy glass; a thing of beauty to be sure. But when left undisturbed, the dregs quickly settled leaving crystal clear water behind. Good enough to drink? Probably not. So we waited until we got home to crack a few cold ones and then toasted Mother Nature, who is still pretty awesome even when giving you the cold shoulder.

When we make an effort to visit critters in their environment, we naturally expect them to show up. We’ve been pretty lucky in that regard, with bison, crocodiles, deer and dolphin all bending to our will. But maybe we’ve set our expectations too low. Maybe it’s not enough that they simply show up and allow us to take pictures. From now on, we’re demanding that they perform tricks, too.

So here we have a Double-crested Cormorant riding on the back of a crocodile. A National Parks Ranger told us she’d never seen anything like this before in her 15 years at the park, and doesn’t expect to see it again. Which isn’t surprising because it isn’t every day you see prey riding its predator like a birthday party pony.