Day 250
Gators
With a fair bit of trepidation, we left our hotel. We were sent on our way with best wishes from Jose the receptionist. He even offered us a bed for the night if we make it to his mum’s house in Honduras - not a bad start.
The first few miles were slow going. We made our way out of the outskirts of Miami by a mixture of back roads, cycle paths and the odd six-lane highway. It was daunting and exhilarating in equal measure. Tom did a food shop in Walmart and came out slightly shell-shocked but with a good mix of food to keep us going.
A few miles later we left Miami behind and picked up our road for the next few days, Route 41, or its more attractive name The Tamiami Trail. This route runs for 275 miles in pretty much a straight line from Miami to Tampa. Through the Everglades a canal was created with the use of a considerable amount of dynamite. The resulting rock was used to create the road, and the canal alongside became an oasis for wildlife. The trail took 13 years to complete and opened in 1928. Today they are building bridges to enable the sheet flow of water rather than just through the drains under the road.
This being high season in Florida the road was fairly busy, but there is a wide hard-shoulder pretty much all the way so we felt safe. The drivers were considerate too, bigger vehicles especially, giving us a couple of gentle toots to warn of their approach and pulling well into the opposite lane. We were heading for Shark Valley, and it didn’t disappoint. OK, it’s not a valley and there are no sharks, but we had a 16-mile traffic free loop with slumbering alligators and such an amazing display of bird life we were stunned by it all. We had a lovely chat with Manuela, originally from Germany, she gave us lots of tips, and we chatted about our trip with her for ages. We were really starting to relax.
Back on the trail the road went on and on.
Finally tired and somewhat grubby we arrived at our campsite. No showers though! The friendly welcome from fellow campers Donna Li and family more than made up for this and we soon settled down for the night.
