Brittany Borges - Guardians Of The Glades Bikini

An hour later, the three pythons were safely bagged and tagged. Brittany sat on the front of the airboat, rinsing the mud off her legs with a water bottle. The turquoise bikini was now more brown than blue.

Then she heard it. A deep, ominous hiss followed by the thrash of heavy coils.

Brittany Borges had spent countless hours beneath the blazing Florida sun, navigating the twisted mangroves and tea-colored waters of the Everglades. As a key member of the Guardians of the Glades , her days were usually measured in snake hooks, muddy boots, and the satisfying weight of an invasive Burmese python bagged. But today was different. Today was about reaching a remote shack of a herpetologist named Crockett, who had radioed about a nest of pythons so large it threatened to destabilize a critical wading bird rookery. brittany borges guardians of the glades bikini

The bikini was surprisingly practical. It dried almost instantly in the oven-like heat, and with no heavy fabric to weigh her down, she moved silently, gliding the kayak around submerged logs and through curtains of floating vegetation. She was a ghost, a streak of tanned skin and turquoise against the green labyrinth.

Then, a rustle in the sawgrass. Crockett, a grizzled man with a snake tattoo on his neck, waded into view. He didn’t say a word. He just dropped to his knees beside her, grabbed the python’s tail, and began to carefully unwind it. An hour later, the three pythons were safely

But the female python sensed the intrusion. Uncoiling with terrifying speed, she slithered not away from Brittany, but toward the shallow water where the kayak was beached. If she reached the main channel, she would vanish.

The problem was the route. The only way in was a two-mile paddle through a series of tight, shallow creeks too narrow for their airboat. And in the brutal, shimmering heat of a Florida July, that meant one thing: she was going in the water. Then she heard it

Crockett handed her a towel. “You know,” he said, a rare grin cracking his weathered face, “most folks wear a little more armor to wrestle a fourteen-foot snake.”