The houses along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico perch on stilts. In fact, so do the churches, schools and any other building; this is a region that knows the force of nature all too well. Our journey along the coastline took us out of Louisiana, through Alabama and Mississippi, onwards to Florida, making this the highest number of states seen in one day so far. Our aim: to make it all the way down the “panhandle” to Everglades National Park. Physically impossible to achieve in one day of driving, we stopped off at various exciting sites along the route.

Florida, in my mind, used to conjure up images of Mickey Mouse, beaches, and killer whales at Sea World. That image is no more; now what springs to mind is swampy humidity, ostentatious Christianity, wildlife (mostly bugs…) and at times, the resort-like vibes you’d expect from the Caribbean.

Alligators, of which the “alli” part is never spoken in Florida, are ubiquitous in this state, so naturally we visited a gator park to take a closer look. Unlike the vicious predators you see in the movies, they were more like a bunch of house cats, lazing around waiting to get fed all day.

That night we slept in Apalachicola National Forest; arriving at the deserted campground in darkness put us on edge somewhat, though we had a thick cloud of sparkling fireflies to keep us company. Of course, in the morning light, we saw the beauty of the nearby lake and the forest itself.

Venturing southwards through small Floridian towns, we started to see a theme emerging; you’d expect to see one or two churches in each of these villages, but here, the churches outnumbered the residential houses, so much so that they had to differentiate themselves with ads (our favourite being “Cross training inside” in the aptly-named town of Cross City). Naturally, the churches were also interspersed with gun shops and strip clubs.

Later, we attempted to secure a campsite at Manatee Springs park, with no luck. Little did we know, how lucky we really were…

We decided instead to walk a trail in the park, then carry on to find another campsite. Much to our delight, this place was teeming with wildlife, from deer to woodpeckers to wild tortoises.

A wild tortoise in its den

Scuba diving in the springs

On our way out of the park, we were struck with horror. My leg felt a needle-sharp itch, which I at first thought was any old mosquito bite. On closer inspection, I saw not one, but three creatures attached to my leg: ticks. Stomach well and truly flipped, we ran over to the bathrooms for a rigorous full body inspection (and obviously a swift removal procedure)! After Aleks extracted one that was embedded in his hip, and we found a load more crawling around the car seats and our bodies, we’d both frankly had enough of the great outdoors for the day, and slept in a car park…

A special thank you goes to my parents who had the genius foresight to buy me tick removal tweezers to pack in my bag – we take back any doubts we had about their necessity!

This traumatic experience meant we needed to seriously treat ourselves the next day. Which means going to Hooters, of course! In fact, the first ever Hooters restaurant, in Clearwater. Unfortunately for Aleks, the waitresses seem to dial back the attention they give their customers when there’s a lady at the table! Their chicken wings were pretty damn good though.

On the comforting theme, we headed to Indian Rocks beach after lunch. Despite a random plague of flies for half an hour (which we used as an opportunity to visit the local British pub), the sand between our toes and the magical sunset (featuring leftover chicken wings) were all we needed to make ourselves feel better, and ready for whatever else Florida had to throw at us.