Middle Keys

The Middle Keys are about half way along the hundred mile chain of islands. We decided to take a trip to check it out before relocating at the end of the week. In particular, we wanted to look at some campsites. But we did stop in places along the way.

When the mangroves aren’t clogging the shallow coastal waters there are some fine, sandy beaches, like Sombrero beach on Marathon Key, with clear water and many fish species visible from the rocks.

We also saw lots of big lizards called iguanas. These live everywhere on the Keys but are non-native, and probably established through escape or abandonment by pet owners. They can grow up to 5 feet in length and are good climbers. Here’s one up a tree on the campsite.

Observe from this closeup how dragon-like they appear. Unlike a dragon, they aren’t dangerous, but are unpopular with the residents as they will eat a wide variety of garden plants. They have no natural predators except for angry residents.

We called in on a dolphin show that was most entertaining, and it was clear that the dolphins enjoyed it too. This one is walking backwards using his tail.

A few of the audience got to stroke a dolphin near the end of the show. Jane was one of the lucky ones. She said the skin felt smooth and silky

Some people think these places should be banned because the animals are not living according to their natural behaviour in the wild. However, this place is a far cry from zoos with bored animals in confined cages; the dolphins interacted enthusiastically with the humans and appeared to be quite contented. 

We saw some lovely orchid plans in the tropical gardens where they grow outdoors in this climate without seeming to need any special attention.

We travelled two-thirds of the way down the Keys before returning to our campsite in Key Largo. On the farther reaches of our journey, a disused railway track was visible for many miles, running more-or-less alongside the road.

The history of the line is that it was built by oil baron Henry Flagler between 1905 and 1912, and was the only direct link joining the many islands of the Keys up to that time and for some years after.

Flagler was an oil baron who spent the winter of 1878 in northern Florida’s warm climate for health reasons.He quickly realised that, because of the climate, there was development potential throughout Florida and became involved in railroad construction in order to make this happen.The Keys railroad was his last and most difficult project, 100 miles of track that linked all the most important islands right down to Key West.

Later, during the 1920’s, some of the Keys were connected by small, meandering  roads over rickety wooden bridges, but the 1935 hurricane changed it all. This devastated the Keys, and destroyed so much of the railroad that it never re-opened. However, the government bought the track, repaired it, and converted it to roadway, with the added benefit that it also  replaced the previous winding  roads with the railway’s gentle curves.

This new road was opened in 1938. Since then, new bridges have been built with wider carriageways, leaving the railway with its road conversion to decay, although part of it has more recently been turned into pedestrian access for fishermen.

We also found a campsite we liked that we booked for the end of the week (Friday, Oct 16^th). See you there, next blog!