Everglades and Aligators

It’s been another interesting part of the journey. I have spent the last week with Nigel catching up on all the things he and his family have been doing in the last 32 years, as well as drinking loads of Captain Morgan Rum, Wine and generally anything else that came to hand! We did do some work and some packing (they are moving this weekend) as well. I will be returning to continue the stay (and the drinking) next week.

I've also been visiting the Florida Everglades and the Keys.

The Everglades was a place I imagined to be mostly like Mangrove Swamp. I think that’s the impression that most of us get when we watch the TV programs that involve this part of the world. The truth couldn’t be much different. A lot of the Everglades are grass wetlands and some of the higher ground (i.e. 14 inches) are covered with small groves of Pine trees. Certainly no stagnant water here. There are areas of Mangroves around the coastal fringes where the water mixes with the sea water to become brackish. Having said all that Florida is not the place to visit in the summer months. It’s the wet season and the humidity would give anywhere in the tropics a run for it’s money!! Plus the fact that in the Everglades National Park they do not spray for Mosquitoes (being part of the food chain) which means in turn you become part of the food chain!! So after four hours of wandering about getting very hot and sweaty and bitten all over, you start to think this is the swamp you were expecting in the first place.


Some of the grass wetlands


With Mangroves around the edges


Some of the indigenous wildlife


This ones more widely known!


It never ceases to amaze me what people will do for attention

Another thing I got to do while I was here that I have wanted to do for a long time was to have a ride in one of the “plane boats” where the normal outboard motor is replaced with a V8 turning a aeroplane propeller. Good fun, but oh so laud!!


A "plane boat"


Good fun but you need the ear muffs!!


Hanging out at Alabama Jacks on a Sunday arvo

The second place that I wanted to visit was the Florida Keys and more importantly make it down to Key West which is the most southerly point in the USA. If was a nice but long ride (200km one way) from Homestead down to Key West through the state parks and over the long connecting bridges (7 miles being the longest) to get there. Once there you are immersed in one of this countries busier tourist spots, added to by at least one cruise ship in port. I chose to have a look around the Mel Fisher Treasure Museum which documents the finds of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita the Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West. Mel and his team discovered the $450 million dollar treasure cache or "Atocha Mother Lode" on July 20, 1985. Over 40 tons of silver and gold were located including over 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight", gold coins, Columbian emeralds, silver and gold artefacts and over 1000 silver bars. Interesting to see where some of those Pieces of Eight that were struck in the mint in Potosi in Bolivia that I visited all those months ago eventually ended up. Next I’m moving up the east coast of Florida.


Old Downtown Key West


No wonder there were a lot of people around!


Another old institution in Key West


The old weatherboard houses are very quaint


Ernest Hemingway lived just up the street


Sunken treasure. These gold bars are the real deal!

Just as a side note. Seeing that I have now reached the East coast of the USA. I guess I have now ridden from the bottom of the world to the top, and now all the way around. Feels good.