Everglades

After our stint in Miami, we finally arrived at Everglades National Park, on the tip of the Florida peninsula. Turning up outside peak season, we easily found a place at Long Pine, one of the official park campgrounds.

If we’re honest, the Everglades baffled us somewhat. We now realise that it might have been made a national park just to protect the land and ecosystem, rather than as a tourist attraction; much of the park is inaccessible on land, but if you’ve got a kayak, you’ll do alright.

If it’s not the mosquitos…

…it’s the vultures

Our first hike was meant to be around Nine-Mile pond. This turned out to be a canoe trail which we’d mistaken for a hiking trail, so we moved on to one which was definitely on foot. After being ambushed by bugs right from the start, we hastily abandoned this one as well.

Disheartened but not defeated, we drove onwards to Flamingo, perched by the ocean. Kayaks were clearly the way to see this place, so we hired a two-person boat – my (Alenka’s) first ever kayaking experience!

After some initial paranoia (about capsizing and subsequently getting eaten by alligators, obviously) we settled into our journey up towards Coot Bay Pond.

A few hours of paddling later and we had seen osprey, a couple of crocs, wading birds, and had come indecently close to a gargantuan spider because our steering had gone awry…

You get the distinct vibe here that this would be the perfect setting for a David Attenborough show; but, despite our findings on our paddle and a hike we took through Long Pine forest the next day, somehow we weren’t especially wowed by the amount of wildlife on display here – that is, until we got to the Anhinga Trail.

Rightfully sat at the top of Trip Advisor’s list of things to do in Everglades, this was a boardwalk through some (artificially created…) mangrove forests and swamps. It was definitely touristy – the only spot in the park that felt this way – and it was spectacularly full of wildlife. The Anhinga birds, after which the trail is named, were a sight to behold, along with the alligators, turtles, insects and all the other creatures… I’ll let the photos speak for us here!

We left the Everglades feeling heartened by the final flourish of wildlife!

Florida Keys 

The Keys are a bunch of small islands just off the southernmost tip of Florida, and obviously the sensible thing for the Americans to do here was build a huge set of bridges so you can drive from one to the next, along Highway 1. Although it’s only about 80 miles long the stingy speed limit makes it feel eternal, so we only made it about half way down the strip on the first night.

Curry Hammock campground was our stopping point, with an ominously stormy weather forecast. Not to be deterred by rain, we lit a fire on the beach (we cheated by using a load of lighter fluid… it was pretty windy) and watched the storm roll in, beer in hand. Thankfully it never came ashore; instead we got a fabulous light show to entertain us for the evening. It was truly beautiful!

Eventually arriving at Key West the next day, we were less lucky with the weather, getting soggy from a tropical drizzle. We had one clear objective: to find some excellent Key Lime Pie. Otherwise we just toddled around the streets of the island, with their fancy houses and cute marketplaces. Had it been a clear, sunny day the town would have been sensationally good-looking, but it was pretty decent anyway.

Kermit’s Key Lime Pie

Old Town Bakery’s take on Key Lime Pie

You need more than a dollar or two to live here!

On the whole we weren’t super enamoured with south Florida; maybe it was the weather, or because they were (completely understandably) still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irma.

In any case, it was time for us to start the second major leg of our US journey: up the East Coast…