Key Largo

Wednesday 20th January 2010

Setting off from Orlando the next morning we drove south on our way to Homestead where we were due to stay in the same motel we stayed in when we visited the Everglades for another couple of nights. On the way we took the fastest road and avoided Miami altogether. We stopped for our picnic lunch on the banks of Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest lake and the second largest lake in the whole of the US. This lake feeds both the Everglades swamplands and the rapacious thirst of humankind south of, and including, Palm Beach; in fact five counties converge somewhere near its centre. It is some 730 square miles in area and is surrounded by a six meter dyke with a capacity of one trillion gallons (American).

Lake Okeechobee is the blue shape north of the Everglades.



There is another ‘National Park’ in Homestead called the Biscayne National Park which was recommended to us by an American we met along the way. However, talking to the very ‘nice boy’ on reception we discovered that we had either got the name of the park incorrect or the American recommending the park had got it wrong. The ‘nice boy’ on reception pulled up a map for us on his mobile phone to show us that there really wasn’t anything there other than a small bay and he recommended that we go to Miami Beach (which we had driven around to get here) if it was swimming we were after. What we really wanted was to do some snorkelling, so he then suggested we try the National Park in Key Largo, somewhere Paul had been intending to visit on our way down to Key West.

Therefore, after breakfast the next day, we set off for a day of doing very little, lying in the (by now) hot sunshine and a little bit of snorkelling. The ‘John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on Key Largo is quiet small compared to some of the others parks we have visited and so the three small beaches quickly filled with other sun slaves giving us the opportunity to do some people watching. There is also the usual wildlife, minus the gators but with the addition of a small Monitor Lizard appeared on the beach out of the mangroves causing great interest from all those present on the beach. As the humans got closer to it to look, cutting off its escape route, it even raised itself on its rear two legs and ran a few feet. Unfortunately, my camera was safely locked in the car!

As the afternoon wore on we packed up and went to look for somewhere to watch the sun go down as this park is on the east coast of the keys. Key Largo is much bigger than either of us had expected and the west coast is almost totally taken up with private residences or businesses and parking virtually impossible. We were just about to give up when I happened to see our spot! We parked the car (at our own risk) on a piece of land adjacent to a jetty and next door to a small but very noisy bar. When Paul asked for two beers the barmaid reeled off the names of twenty or more bottled beers, there were none on draught, then we went and sat on the end of a jetty, and finally got to watch the sun go down and the even more beautiful afterglow that comes with a slightly cloudy sunset. In reality, the place we bought the beers from was very loud and the barmaid a little less than friendly, snatching the money out of Pauls hand and shoving his change back on the bar – both of which kinda irritated both of us as it had already been more than a little stressful finding somewhere to stop – but it was worth it.