We meandered our way up the Keys, starting with a search for Key Deer on the lower keys. Key Deer are tiny, greyhound-sized deer that are found only on the Florida Keys. They are cute, curious and endangered. The numbers of Key Deer left are disputed, it's somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500. Which is very low, when you consider over 100 are killed every year as a result of collisions with cars, but is a hell of a lot better than in the 1950s when the numbers sank to below 100. We spent about an hour driving (really, really) slowly around the Keys' backstreets (which is any street other than the highway) searching for Key Deer - we saw four, as well as an alligator, and lots of lizards.
We stopped for lunch at a road-side diner, staffed by grandma-aged ladies who knew how to make a burger, they called us honey and kept the root beer coming.
Continuing up the Keys, we stopped at the Theatre of the Sea, for the moment I'd been waiting for - swimming with dolphins. After a half hour black-board type session on what to do and what not to do when interacting with dolphins, they let us in the lagoon with the dolphins. Mark and I were in a group with a wee local girl, so there were two dolphins, Kona and Sherry, and three humans. We got to spend about 45 minutes with them in the water. It was fabulous - they followed us around the pool swimming, we dived, the followed us, we went around a corner they followed us gently bumping against us and squeaking at each other under the water. The highlight was probably the dorsal tow, where two of them pulled me across the pool by their dorsal fins.
We finished the night at the rustic marina bar at our hotel, looking out over the boats. The next day was a bit of unfortunate write-off. We went to the John Pennekamp State Park - one of very few parks which are located mostly underwater. There is a protected coral reef which is home for swathes of sealife, as well as the wider park which is home to many other animals including alligators and crocodiles. Unfortunately, the boat trip out to the reef provided seasickness pills. As most of you know, I get really bad motion-sickness. So I took the pill.
Unfortunately one of the side-effects was drowsiness. So I didn't really see much, my eyes kept shutting. Mark tells me it was quite good. I was wiped out for most of the day (the effects are just starting to kick in, in the photo above) - we went back to the hotel in the late afternoon and I slept for two hours. Some of that was pool-side so Mark could have a swim, but I didn't really wake up until 8pm. So it took about 7 hours out of the day. So much for seeing lots of Key Largo!
We were up early the next day to start our trip towards Orlando. We had hoped to drop into Key Biscayne National Park, but unfortunately it wasn't open on Mondays. This was particularly disappointing, as we'd heard that Key Biscayne was our best chance to see a manatee in the wild. So the helpful park ranger sent us in the direction of the Miami Seaquarium, where we'd at least get to see a manatee, even if it was in captivity. So we were back to negotiating the toll roads and highways around Miami. I'm pleased to say that in spite of everything, we made it to the Seaquarium with no damage done to Dick Cheney, or our relationship.
The Seaquarium was pretty cool. We saw a killer whale (a first for both of us) called Lolita. Her trainer has the coolest job, swimming around with a killer whale and riding about on her (although subsequent research shows Lolita has a checkered history in terms of dangerous behaviour towards trainers). We were a little bit concerned about the size of Lolita's tank, and the fact that she didn't seem to enjoy her job quite as much as the dolphins seem to.
We saw a couple of dolphins shows, including one on the actual set of the Flipper TV show (for those of you that can remember that show, it was a hit in our household) with one of the actual Flipper dolphins. The did some awesome tricks, and there was a very cute wee baby dolphin, called Squirt, who was getting a bit of gentle training in a side pool.
The highlight though was definitely the manatees. They are the weirdest looking things I've ever seen, kind of a cross between a walrus, a whale and a really fat mermaid. There were four - all were there because the Seaquarium had taken them in after unfortunate and disabling run-ins with humans. manatees have no natural predators, the only immediate danger to them is humans. Many are hit by boats and permanently disabled or killed. One at the Seaquarium had to have 75% of its back flipper removed (they only have one, and it usually accounts for a large percentage of their entire body) after a jet boat collided with it and mangled its flipper beyond help. Another was hit by a boat and had its back broken. Another was orphaned after its mother was killed and subsequent attempts to release her into the wild have all ended badly. As a result none of these three can ever live in the wild again, so instead they have been taken in by the Seaquarium and help out with a wee baby orphaned manatee, who will hopefully be reconditioned to the wild when she is old enough to survive on her own and fend for herself.
Back on the road for the push north. We needed to put some serious road between us and Miami, to make the drive to NASA at Cape Canaveral shorter the next day.
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