Close encounters of the gator kind

At a nearby Nature preserve, it can definitely get a bit close to Nature at times.  There are alligators in the ponds along the path I was walking a couple of days ago.  Normally I don’t see them.  No one was around, and I had the place to myself on a beautiful late Spring day with a nice breeze off the surrounding marshes and river.  All in all, a perfect day.

I tried out for the first time my portable folding chair that weighs about two pounds.  I set it up at my favorite spot on that path along the former rice ponds.  It was so relaxing out there with that very nice breeze.

When I packed up to leave about a half hour later, what do I see  but a 6 ft. alligator on the path 20 feet from where I had been sitting, unbeknownst to me.  

Oh Gee, I’d have to gingerly walk past him with about five feet of clearance, or else have to walk a half mile the other way to reconnect with the path back to the parking lot.  Foolishly, since I thought he looked asleep and mellowed out in the sun, I very slowly, and with mounting trepidation, walked past him, uneventfully, thank goodness, but thinking to myself, “This is a dumb thing to do,” but I had just the day before watched a guy with his pet gator all cuddly together.

Needless to say, I won’t be doing that again.  When I had gotten past him I stopped to look back, and he was moving toward the water, his jaws opening in what I presumed was a sleepy yawn.   “Good boy! Just stay right where you are while I get the heck out of here!”

This is yet another cautionary tale of my most recent Nature mis/adventure, but such is my life in the wilds.

Here he is:

https://flic.kr/p/2nqFEcr

And

https://flic.kr/p/2nqErqU