Wild Florida

Whether you head for the theme parks of Orlando or the sugar sand beaches of the Gulf Coast, just remember, there's a wild side to the Sunshine State says Jo Bayne

First we saw the words Alligator Crossing on a road sign; then the inscription 'Hurricane Evacuation Route.'

Never having been to any part of America before, we had vaguely thought of Florida as the Sunshine State, all sun and sea and orange juice. This wild side was a new dimension.

Not that we saw an alligator crossing the road, but neither did we pull off Highway One, the only road to the Florida Keys, and hang around the mangrove-fringed verges to invite reptilian curiosity. We believed it!

And the hurricane hit about two weeks after we had moved on, mercifully skirting most of the Keys. The hurricane season is roughly from late summer through to the end of November but, in fact, they rarely hit Florida.

We’d flown into Miami sunshine, from an English autumn, picked up a hire car and stayed overnight in Key Largo, the first and largest of the Keys. These are little islands, with names such as Islamorada, Marathon, El Rababob and Big Pine, laid out in a long string linked by 126 miles of straight road and 43 bridges.

It's a magnificent feat of engineering and a picturesque ride, and while the alligators kept their distance, we saw pelicans, ospreys and a huge variety of unfamiliar birds we couldn’t identify.

From time to time the remains of an earlier road and railroad, on complex ironwork, straddled the sea between islands. We later learned this was the work of Henry Flagler, business partner of the rather better known John D. Rockefeller. Flagler's influence on the development of Florida as a tourist region through his entrepreneurial railroads, hotels and infrastructure is immense.

His original pioneering railroad, which ran from St Augustine in north east Florida to Key West, the most southern point of mainland North America, was completed in 1912, shortly before his death, only to be destroyed by a hurricane in 1935. It was never rebuilt and the present Overseas Highway took its place.

The small communities on either side of the highway are strongly orientated to marine leisure activities. There are boats for hire, water skiing, scuba diving, coral reef exploration and of course, fishing. And there are any number of restaurants offering seafood delicacies – and alligator if you fancy it. At Marathon we passed the optimistically named Soon to be World Famous Gator Restaurant – that's the true American spirit!

We soon learned not to be put off if the outward appearance of a diner was somewhat basic, even shack-like. The no-frills approach often produced the tastiest fare.