The Florida Coast and Everglades

Our southerly journey through Florida was down State Route A1A wherever that was possible. This is the road which follows the Atlantic Coast all the way to Key West. The road is sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal waterway, all the way. (North-south highways on the eastern side of Florida are firstly the Interstate 95, used by anyone needing to get anywhere, then, mostly closer to the coast, US1 which was the main road before the interstates were invented, then A1A, which follows the very coast as much as possible.)

The weather began to get hotter as we came further south, so now we have exchanged our winter uniform for the Floridian clothing of shorts and t-shirt.

Most of the road is built up on either side by a variety of holiday housing. It seems like hundreds of miles of holiday houses. As we neared Fort Lauderdale and Miami, we began to see some very palatial houses, complete with gate house, studios, and pool houses, which allowed no access to the beach at all for the public. In fact most of the actual coast, especially outside the towns, has very limited public areas, and it is very hard to actually get to the beach, and when you do, there may be nowhere to park. Trying to find the beach, we detoured into a couple of little areas, of modest looking houses and trailer parks, they were a rabbit warren of tiny streets, and looked as though they had just popped up there. Still no parking in these areas, we parked illegally to have a quick walk onto the sand.

As you approach major towns and cities, the upmarket houses on the Atlantic beachfront give way to rows and rows of high rise buildings, some of them still under construction, about 50 stories high, which were amazing. On the other side of the road, the intracoastal is often there, and alongside it there were lovely islands of houses, some gated, many with big boats parked in the water, and complete with pools and sometimes beaches [photo]. In what you might call the "village centre", most Cities have provided for public parking and public access to the beach. Maybe the best example of this was Fort Lauderdale which, while it had its full compliment of high rise with private beach access, also had extensive areas of public parking and beach access.

The Florida experience has certainly has been an eye opener for us, and it has put us in a place which is very busy, unlike most of the places when we visit them. For example, the Outer Banks were almost closed when we were there, but now we are in peak season in Florida (and the hotel prices reflect this too!).

We visited Naples to visit some old friends, Ange and Lucia, who hosted us overnight, and we are very grateful for their generous hospitality.

We made two passes through the Everglades, once on the I75, and once on Route 41. The Everglades are a threatened area (too much housing development and golf courses), and a long drought, are taking a toll. Even the water supply to the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, has been largely cut off by the construction of a levy around the lake. Nevertheless we were amazed to see lots of alligators, sunning themselves on the banks of the swampy waterways. The bird life is really plentiful, quite stunning, but extremely difficult to photograph, and we saw lots of different species of egrets, other water birds, many banded kingfishers, rare ruby spoonbills [photo], and pelicans. Lots of people take advantage of the several viewing areas along the sides of these roads.

A ride on one of the Everglades air boats was a must for us. We took a private boat and we sped through the grasses, just like in the movies [photo of our "captain"]. Many of our wildlife observations were during this ride. We had an excellent guide, a native of Argentina, who gave us good descriptions of the flora and fauna of the beautiful Everglades, and even showed us an alligators' nest.

We didn't see many other critters which inhabit the swamp. These include black bears, deer, snakes and a rare species of panther, with a tawny coat. The Florida Panther is highly endangered - there are thought to be less than 100 left, and unfortunately, quite a few of these get killed by traffic despite "Panther Crossing" signs, and specially reduced speed limits, which most drivers seem to ignore. Breeding programs in a refuge have been successful, but nevertheless the future for this precious species must be most precarious indeed.