Oct 20th: Key West

Key West is the farthest island in the chain linked by road to the mainland. The mainland is 100 miles back along the road, and Cuba 90 miles as the crow flies. So it’s hot, humid and tropical.

Key West became American in 1821 having been Spanish before that, except for a 20 year possession by the British. Its deep water harbour served to increase trade and importance as a port but the town also prospered from fishing, salt, salvaging and wrecking. By 1889 Key West was the biggest and most prosperous city in Florida.

The town centre is composed largely of grand wooden homes from the 19^th century, similar to many other historic US cities like New Orleans or Charleston.  

There are only a few brick or stone buildings. This is one of them, a copy of Havana Town Hall. It just needs a model of Fidel Castro on the balcony.

These days, revenue comes mainly from tourism, so make your visit expecting a generous dose of tourist tat and you won’t be disappointed. We have here in the next photo the “History of Smuggling and Wrecking Museum”, complete with watchtower. Outside were people in period costume shouting in Treasure Island “Ar, there, Jim lad” accents; all good fun.

But of course you enter into the spirit of it, so we took the trolley tour. These are the little buses in the photo above. I manage to get a good shot of Kermit, producer of one of the Islands signature goodies- Key Lime Pie. It’s a kind of lime flavoured cheesecake dipped in chocolate. We had an ice cream version that was yummy. I was a little let down that Kermit wasn’t dressed like a frog as per the Muppets.

We roll past the Hemingway’s house: the author lived here from 1931 to 1939. It’s probably most famous for its 6 toed cats, all descended from a cat Hemingway was given by a ship’s captain. We didn’t see any cats and not much of the house as we sailed by. Could that be Hemingway’s bike parked by the lamppost?

From cats to roosters; they are to be seen everywhere, and wander freely as protected species. They originated from Cuban immigrants who settled in Key West to work in the many cigar factories that then operated on the island. The Cubans brought their families and livestock with them. They prospered, and didn’t need the chickens for eggs or meat anymore, so released them. Opinion is divided; the tourists love them: they’re colourful, run daringly across busy roads and are harmless. The residents detest them for their mess and disease carrying potential, and the noise from the crowing roosters. As with most issues there are valid opposing viewpoints.

Every visitor takes this photo: the southernmost point in the USA, looking like a bottle bank. Go beyond and you fall off the edge of the World.

Parking is extremely difficult in Key West. We parked the motorhome in a suburban shopping centre and caught a taxi in. Some No Parking signs are amusing, though, as in the following photo. Bear in mind that the Keys area is the only frost-free part of the USA; the lowest temperature ever recorded in Key West is 43 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Wandering around after the trolley tour it was easier to look closer at some of the sights; this banyan tree for example. It’s over 100 years old and huge, with aerial prop roots straying into next door on the right.

The focal point of the old town is Mallory Square, famous for its sunsets. We were there in the middle of the afternoon so the square was deserted and not photogenic, so I snapped this up-market vagrant instead who was sitting in the square. Perhaps I’ve misjudged him; folks down here dress so casually that he could be the Harbour Master. 

On the political front, Key West was an important naval base from 1823 to 1974, and has played host to many US Presidents in the residence known as the Little White House. Kennedy met with the UK’s Harold McMillan here during the Cuba crisis. Eisenhower, Truman, Clinton and Carter stayed. This is it, although it doesn’t look quite as imposing as you’d expect.

Key West became more interesting the more you looked behind the touristy first impression. It has a fascinating history, linked closely with Cuba, and even established itself as a separate country in 1982 on a technicality. The Conch Republic, as it calls itself, has its own flag and passport but graciously allows itself to remain part of the USA. 

Friday 16th Oct: Big Pine Key

Big Pine Key is about 2/3 of the way down the 100 mile Keys island chain. Our campsite is directly on the bay and caters for boaters so it has its own quay and a separate small harbour. This is the quay; the campsite stretches off to the right. Well bring our inflatable plastic dinghy next time.

It’s the low season until the end of this month; on 1^st November, we are told, the site fills up completely almost overnight. Still, right now we get the choice of an excellent pitch overlooking the bay. Doing a holiday blog, it’s tempting to always use photos bathed in sunshine, but the view from our pitch looks more dramatic with the dark clouds. Jane’s taking her tea out- abroad we may be, but we’re British and can’t function without tea.

Big Pine Key is a national sanctuary for the only remaining population of Key deer, a small species that seems to have made a remarkable comeback going by the numbers that we saw. This is a stag crossing a side road. 

There aren’t many beaches in the Keys, and most of those are artificial. Our nearest local beach is called Long Beach. We set off in anticipation, imagining a beach a mile long with a hundred yards width of sand. A little deflated when we arrive at a beach a couple of hundred yards long and five feet wide; that is, depending on the tide; tide in = zero feet wide. Still, it takes a pleasant enough photo, particularly as I haven’t stripped off for a skinnydip.

People will dump stuff anywhere, we thought as we came across this plastic helmet.

How wrong can you be! It’s a horseshoe crab, evident when we turned it over; deceased of course.

The campsite nature trail reveals some interesting features: this gumbo limbo tree for instance. With its peeling bark, it’s also known as the “tourist tree” as it looks like a holidaymaker’s skin who’s been sunbathing too long.

The area is full of birdlife, with its shallow ponds and abundance of vegetation and fish. This next photo contains white ibis, great egret, reddish egret and snowy egret.

Much of the rock around is coral from past eras when sea levels were much higher. This is an example of two types (two photos joined together); the left hand one is called brain coral because it looks like a brain. So it’s a good place to come for a top-up when your brain starts wearing out: that’s the reason we’re here.

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! 

Oct 13th: Everglades Anhinga Trail

We’re still at Key Largo, which right on the edge of the huge Everglades National Park. There’s only one access road to the Park so it’s a 40 mile trip to get to the entrance. We plan to spend a few hours exploring the anhinga trail that starts soon after passing through the Park entrance. We stop at the Visitor Center first to get a map and some information. We’re warned by a ranger that the mosquitoes are still highly active on another trail that we thought we might also try.

We drive on to the trail head where ample car parking is provided. Oddly, most cars in the car park are shrouded in blue tarpaulins. Notices explain these are provided free by the Park because the resident vultures are attracted to the window glass rubber surrounds and can cause extensive damage. We sheet up.

The shallow ponds and sawgrass of the Everglades surround us as we start our walk on the well-made path. This is the end of the rainy season so the water table is quite high. This is a typical view.

Not much wildlife in evidence? It is there, but well camouflaged. Jane’s particularly good at spotting creatures that merge into the background, as with this green heron that is actually in the reed bed photo above.

It’s a mistake to be looking exclusively for large animals as you’ll miss strikingly marked insects like this lubber grass hopper. It’s about 4 inches long.

Of course, everybody wants to see the alligators. They are easy to miss as they blend into the environment so well. This one’s wake gave the game away as he glided through the ponds.

This is no zoo, and while the gator above may be comfortably at arm’s length, the next one was in a dip beside the path. He looks docile enough, but they move fast so you don’t disturb him. He’s about 8ft long.

Much of the trail is on sturdy raised boardwalk, in order to cross the shallow standing water of the sawgrass beds. It enables visitors to use the trail in any season.

It’s called the anhinga trail: so what’s an anhinga? It’s a largish, diving, fishing bird something like a cormorant that needs to dry its wings after getting wet as they don’t contain waterproofing oils. In other words, the bird’s feathers’ get waterlogged. We just happened to see one drying its wings as described.

We saw some butterflies and dragonflies, vultures and ravens, and small flitting unidentifiable birds. There’s a lot more stuff in there but nothing’s guaranteed to appear, and I suppose that’s the fascination: you might just be lucky enough to see a puma.

As it was, it was a great day out.

Around Key Largo Campground

The whole of Florida is more or less flat, and the Keys are even flatter with a highest point of 16ft above sea level. The sea is therefore accessible from almost every part of this narrow chain of islands. Building developers have used this to construct many housing estates where each house backs onto an artificial canal that then leads to the open sea. So each habitation has a boat mooring.  

Unsurprisingly, boating activities predominate throughout the Keys: fishing, scuba diving, snorkeling, canoeing and pleasure boating, for tourists and residents. And that’s not including the smugglers! On that theme, drugs are clearly a local problem, as this notice on a park near our campsite shows.

Using a perverse logic- does it mean that drugs are allowed in parks where these signs are absent?

Residents we talk to say it's Paradise here- so it is, but at a cost. Any residential or other developments have first to clear the mangrove swamp and drain the soil. Mangrove swamps appear impenetrable, as the photo shows, so clearance is expensive. 

Paradise also has mosquitoes. Without mosquito control, most of the Keys would be uninhabitable. The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District employs 75 inspectors who visit all properties four times a year looking for any stagnant water sources where mosquitoes might breed. There is also an active spraying programme. Several mornings we heard an aircraft flying back and forth in a grid pattern, spraying the whole area. The number of mosquitoes was noticeably reduced thereafter.

The next issue is hurricanes. We’ve had very little wind, but the rain is a deluge when it occurs. This is something unusual to us Brits. It’s difficult to capture on camera, but here goes. A full-on hurricane is something way beyond this of course.

It’s not all top-end, modern housing either; there are many poorer dwellings like the one for sale below.

Our daily walk takes us first to the main road, which has a wide cycle and pedestrian path, before we turn off into side roads. The main road here is busy, being the one through-road serving the Keys.

There’s an indoor/outdoor market, just off the main road, featuring quirky stalls as shown underneath. We’re thinking of buying the buffalo head as a Christmas gift for someone. You’ll have to hope that someone isn’t you.

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.