The Everglades & Miami South Beach

The Everglades is our last stop before reaching Miami and then unfortunately flying back, arriving in the UK on the 5th October, nearly exactly a month since we set off from Manchester. The drive is long and tough from the Keys simply due to the time and boringness of the road we needed to travel on. We arrive at our motel ‘Super8’, check in and head to the pool. The motel is near to the southern entry point to the Keys at Ernest Coe Visitor Centre. For dinner that day we head to Sonny’s BBQ house, the food was tasty, the ribs were juicy and the brisket fell apart. The next morning we checkout and head to the Everglades.

Luckily the Everglades are next door to where we stayed so after only 20 mins we arrived at Ernest Coe Visitor Centre. We explored the exhibits and spoke to a ranger about the options and formulated a plan for the day. The first stop after a short 15 minute video was a viewing tower about 20 mins further into the national park. Once there you get a good view of the surroundings and can see the scale of the grasslands which dominate the everglades. We had read into doing airboat tour but ditched this idea as it's not really good for the national park and they don't officially do this anymore.

The day itself was hot and we knew mosquitoes would be everywhere, we had a good few layers of sunscreen and deet all over our body making it sometime a bit uncomfortable when walking and travelling between locations. Our goal was to get to the furthest part of the national park, Flamingo Visitor center in the very south where you can have the option to canoe through various trails. Upon arriving at the center we saw swarms of mosquitoes buzzing around the car as we arrived just waiting for the moment to attack. We again layered up on deet and made a run for the visitors centre. As we ran followed by a swarm of mosi’s we made it to see that all staff had full body mosquito net style shirts on, almost like suites a beekeeper would wear. After speaking to them it turns out we came at a bad time due to the weather and the recent rains had unleashed a plague of bugs. After a quick break, another layer of deet and an ice cream we decide canoeing wasn't for us and started to make the drive back through the national park deciding to stop several trails en-route.

All the trails were very accessible and very easy to walk on, none were longer than a mile and we often did not see any other tourists so it felt like we had the place to ourselves, maybe other tourists knew it’s not a good day for the bugs and kept away. On the trials we saw several types of bird, several turtles of differing species, many insects (massive spiders) and encountered many different types of environment/landscape from grasslands to ‘stunted pine’ forests to large mahogany forests. The Everglades proved to be a worthwhile day trip however it's a shame about the canoeing and the bugs, all in all a decent and very peaceful day spent with nature and mainly without anyone else which seems to be a common theme for the time of year we have decided to travel at. The only damage we had from the day is many bits and in some odd places, even with the 50% deet we had on. Izzi got bites behind her ear and well as some through her top on her back & on her chest. The strangest bites I got were on both the palm and the top of my right hand as well as in my eyebrow as well as a few small ones on my legs.

After leaving the Everglades we aim for Miami, only about 1hr but we are travelling in rush hour then have to find the car rental place to drop the car off. Unfortunately as we approach Miami the traffic gets worse and we take 2 or 3 wrong turns, in total it took us 2hrs but then combined with queue to drop off the car as well as getting a taxi then to our next hotel it took nearly 4 hrs and should have probably taken 2hrs.

We had decided to stay at a hostel in miami for a change, luckily the hostel was located 2 minutes walk from the beach or that's what we thought. Once we had arrived they checked us in and directed us 6 blocks back from the beach to our apartment, we weren't happy about that but they ran a shuttle bus back and forth all day but still it's a pain in the arse and not the convenience that we wanted. The apartment was nice, clean and spacious so we can't complain. That night we went on a pub crawl and to club ‘Mansion’ organised by the hostel, it was fun and we spoke to lots of people, the club however was not our sort of music and left by 2:30am which I think is early for Miami.

The next day was our only full day in Miami, we hired backs and cycled from the north to south along the beach which was very pleasant. The weather was good and not to hot with a breeze as it's on the coast. The beachfront felt very welcoming and not tacky or cheap in any way. Both of us spoke about wanting to come back and experience more of Maini at some point.

In the afternoon we headed for the famous Miami South Beach, the home of more scantily clad young women and some men than I have ever seen, ever more than Rio! The beach was beautiful even if a it was busy, music was playing in all directions and groups all around seemed in very high spirits. The sea was crystal clear and warm and if you swam just off the many beach to about 8 ft I could see large shoals of fish which was a surprise. We chilled for a few hours before heading back.

That evening was our last evening in USA so went for a very tasty and more up market french restaurant than what we are used to. After a delicious meal and a bit of final shopping we headed back to the apartment, the next day was glastonbury ticket sales so we had to be up at 3:50am to get tickets with our friends.

It's 3.50am and we awake trying in futile to get glastonbury tickets and eventually out of our group of 18 people only one group of 6 got through which is a massive disappointment. It doesn't matter as the rest of us will try in the re-sale in April or will be headed to one or two more festivals next summer to make up for it. We head back to sleep before a 12:30 checkout and a trip to the airport to fly home that evening.

We arrive at the airport with a few hours to kill. We are set to fly at 18:30 with Thomas Cook and arrive manchester 7am the next day with the time difference. At 19:00 we get told the plane is delayed and as you can imagined some people start to get agitated, myself and Izzi hang back and watch the chaos unfold.

Its 22:00 and we have been told the plane will not fly today and has a technical fault which needs to be fixed before we fly. Two overwhelmed airport staff poorly disseminate information about what's going to happen. By the time we have picked up our baggage, got taxis etc we arrive at a hotel at 12:30am and are told to sleep, eat breakfast and in the morning information will be available. The next morning we awake to a letter under the door detailing pickup at 10am and a possible flight at noon today. We eat and head back to the airport to checking our bags once more and attempt to fly home for a 2nd time. Izzi has emailed her work detailing the issue as she should be in work at 8am on Wednesday but we won't land until 2am Wednesday if we fly at noon.

It’s 12:30pm and we are rumoured to be boarding at 1pm, fingers crossed the plane is fixed and ready to go. Eventually we board at 2pm and head off home back to reality, see you later America we will be back.