Key West – Party Central X 10
I was going to blog about several things we have done in Florida but frankly there’s too much for one post so I’ll split the tours up where possible so you don’t have too much to read at once. This first post is about our Key West bus tour. I apologise for it’s length.
Key West is about 4 hrs drive south of Fort Lauderdale so this (free for us) bus tour started early at 0830. Phillipe our tour guide is one of the most ‘up natured’ guys I have ever heard. His humour was good and his knowledge was excellent (though as the recipient of a BSc in Environmental Science I believe he has been ‘tuned up’ by the green brigade to believe that the sky is falling due to mankind). To his credit he wasn’t a preacher of doom and gloom.
The photos below are pretty much in chronological order as we took them. Once we got through the metropolis of Miami we began to see the scenery that we kind of expected. You’ve all seen “Miami CSI” and “NCIS Miami” on TV and the long string of bridges from island to island that make up “The Keys”. You know the scenes with helicopter shots of a high speed car chase with guns blazing and bombs exploding (ala the movie “True Lies”). Well we didn’t see any car chases or ‘fireworks’ but what we did see was breathtaking.
The first of these starts with a typical pic of mangroves and a lone sailing boat cruising through a passage. Florida is basically a swamp. I say this as fact and not with any negative tones. It’s cities and infrastructure are built on land reclaimed from low lying flat swamps (remember this for my next blog on our everglades air boat ride). South of Miami we have “the Keys” starting with Key Largo and ending with the southern most part of continental USA, Key West. (Do these names strike a bell in your memory?) So a sailing boat in the mangroves is common place.
As we started down the chain of islands we noticed the laid back style of architecture and décor. Everything here has a maritime feel including buildings with lovely murals covering otherwise bland walls. However following Hurricane Irma in the Aug/Sept of 2017 there is still much damage visible and lots of repair work happening. (Hurricanes are the same as our cyclones. Irma caused 82 deaths (52 directly) and $65 Billion USD damage.)
We did stop for a break on our way south at Islamorada where I was horrified to learn there is a cookbook for my beloved Volitans (sp. Pterois volitans – Lionfish). Who’d want to eat the prettiest fish in the ocean? Then I learnt that the volitans is an introduced species to the Atlantic and it has become (as most introduced species do (think cane toad, fox, rabbit etc)) a pest and a threat to the local marine life. The tourist Info centre here also had displays of old diving gear and the car park was bordered by the local rock which you can see is ancient limestone/coral. (Aside – I learnt today that there is a limit to the number of lobster traps one is allowed but so bad is the volitans problem that for every 10 lionfish you catch/hand in you can have 1 extra lobster trap.)
Moving down the road you can see the huge number of islands in these beautiful blue sub-tropical waters. Even from the bus you can literally see coral reef on the side of the road! If you don’t like aquatic scenes then stay away from here as everything is tied to the water. The photos show various road scenes from the bridge crossings to the new estates under construction. Population growth here is staggering. There is an island off the old bridge called “Pidgeon Key” (see pic) which has been converted to a campground mainly used for school holiday camps. Following that pic is a photo of what we in Australia would call a caravan/camping ground. The thatched roof building has all you need for a great holiday but the standard puts our grounds to shame. This is a typical caravan park.
Then comes the pics of ‘the big one’. This is 7 mile bridge. Yes, 7 miles from one island to the next. It is awesome. At various points you catch glimpses of the old bridge on one side or maybe the long gone rail bridge on the other. This is a fantastic drive. You know you’ve made Key West when the house boat homes start to appear and you pass the US Naval Air Station.
Key West. WOW. This gallery starts with a few shots of typical but traditional homes in the township. Seeing as we didn’t get to KW till just after noon Shane & I were hungry. True story – Phillipe was pointing out a few landmarks as we stopped when we asked “where can we get a good feed and a beer?” He started to point out a few spots when he said “that blue place in the distance is a brewery/café.” That’s all he needed to say & Shane and I were off. Our final words to him were “If we’re not back by 7pm (the scheduled departure time) we’ll be in the pub!” He laughed! But at 5 minutes to 7pm we were back in the pub (again). The next 2 pictures are Shane and our lunch (She – coconut shrimp, me – Chicken something or other and 2 local beers) and the marina where the pub was situated.
Next you can see one of my faves, the local rum distillery. In the next pic if you zoom in you may notice Sloppy Joe’s bar on the left, an Irish bar in the green place across the road next to another pub (with 1st floor balcony) and a 4th pub on the diagonal opposite corner. This is not unusual as almost every third store is a pub here! This place is party central x 10. Next 3 pics are inside of Captain Tony’s Bar, a bar famous for it’s risqué crowd. (It reminded me of Daley Waters pub in the NT.) Key West has several tourist tours like the hop on hop off ‘train ride’ and because of it’s strategic value it has a strong naval history. Key West and the chain of islands here has a long time pirate history and the lifestyle here still shows the same dedication to fun times just not all very manly. There’s a Maritime Museum and wreck relics galore.
In our 6 hours there Shane & I managed 3 pubs, a rum distillery and a boutique brewery café while others visited museums and Art Galleries. We even managed to be the most southern occupants of Continental USA for 5 minutes by sitting on the south side of the marker bouy while the other ning nongs got their pics taken beside it. (Nah nah!) Anyway we wandered back to the main part of town (the brewery café) to await our recall to the bus. On the way back I noticed this Naval vessel that despite it’s hull number (that of Guided Missile Destroyer HMAS Perth DDG38) looked like a recovery vessel for the nearby Naval Air Station.
That was about it for Key West even though we barely scratched the surface. Even at 8pm the sun still hadn’t set but it made for a nice picture just the same. Again we crossed the 7 Mile Bridge and by midnight we were home in bed tired but happy.
In under 24 hours from now we pick up our caravan (or Travel Trailer as they call them in the USA) and we’re intending to head back down to Key West if we can find a park open following Hurricane Irma. Some are closed as its off season while many haven’t re-opened since Irma hit.
Watch the next blog when we post pics of our airboat adventure on the everglades searching for alligators.
Cheers for now.
Garry & Shane