Key Largo, Florida: Thursday 1st October

We took a late flight from Washington to Miami, so stayed overnight at a hotel near Miami airport. The higher temperature and humidity hit us straight away. At 90 degrees air con is essential; the hotel room air con was set at 60 degrees and felt far too cold. It makes one realise that “comfortable” for humans inhabits a narrow temperature range.

The next morning we take a taxi from the hotel to the motorhome depot. We’re using Cruise America, who provide functional but fairly basic vehicles. It’s only 18 miles, but the address seems to confuse the taxi-driver’s satnav. To be fair to the satnav, it’s really the taxi-driver who’s confused. The journey takes longer than anticipated. No problem, none of us get it right all the time- except that with taxi fares the customer pays for an unnecessarily extended journey. Am I turning into a grumpy old man, or what?

We’re not going far, less than 50 miles from the depot, to the first island in the Florida Keys, Key Largo. The Keys are a chain of islands joined up by a road that runs for the most part along an old railway track built in the 1890’s. Before that time these low-lying, mosquito infested mangrove swamp islands were accessible only by boat, if anyone thought it worth bothering. Pirates, wreckers and some Indians did.

Our campsite at Key Largo is very laid back and tropical looking. It’s hot and humid, and feels more Caribbean that American. We hear more Spanish than English spoken in the area. Look, here’s Jane: Tarzan’s taking the picture.

 The site has an inlet giving access to the sea so it’s popular with boaters. There are a number of (expensive) waterside pitches. These are also more mosquito-prone, being nearer to the mangrove swamps, so you get bitten twice. It’s very picturesque, though.

We have some interesting daily visitors to our pitch. Firstly, a pair of chickens who are inseparable. Perfect, caring companions, it appears- until food is thrown down, when it’s every man for himself. 

The squirrel eats out of Jane’s hand. They are best walnuts, so he’s quite keen.

And, lastly, our resident crab. He looks like he might break into a dance, perhaps a hornpipe. We’ve also spotted several bird species new to us but these have been too busy to pose for the camera. I’ll keep trying.

Just for the moment we’re chilling out. Chilling is perhaps the wrong word as it reaches over 90 degrees (32C) during the day and 77 (25C) at night. The pool is kind of essential.