Paddles, Pelicans & Lobsters....

Our last day on the Keys, and it is overcast with a few drops of rain! However, it is warm rain, so we hop on the bikes to explore locally, taking the Old Highway and quiet residential roads. Older houses are the traditional wooden bungalows of pastel shades with wooden shutters. In fact the oldest surviving house on the Keys is nearby - a restored, pastel blue, wooden structure with an enormous water barrel alongside that was used to collect rain water for drinking - a well was also used but only for flushing toilets etc as the only ground water is salty. Now all drinking water is piped from the mainland. Newer houses are hurricane-proof, supported on high concrete stilts, with cars and canoes stored underneath.
By lunchtime it is dry and the bay flat calm. Included in our hotel price is the use of kayaks so we take two out for a leisurely paddle. We have the entire bay to ourselves. Exploring up a channel, overhanging mangrove branches support groups of enormous coloured lizards (4 to 5 ft long). Ibises stand around on a small sandy beach. Then we spot a newish sign warning of recent crocodile sightings! We paddle back out to the bay rather quickly. Here the water is clear, with shoals of tiny fish darting through weed, and it's possible to approach very close to Pelicans without them minding.


After a hot shower we pedal off down a back road, through stacks of wooden lobster pots, to a marina full of small commercial fishing boats. At "The Fisheries", where lobster is off-loaded and sold, we order lobster and salad from the adjacent kitchen and eat the meal of the trip.


The customer on the next table to us is a fisherman, still wearing his wellies. More lobster is off-loaded from a small boat to the rear of the kitchen, and we notice a Pelican sitting in the boat! Other pelicans watch from the wooden jetties, hopeful of titbits.

Location:Key Largo