The day was warm, around 25 to 30 degrees (75-89F), but overcast and our expectations for a brilliant sunset were not high. But just as we thought nothing much was going to happen, a dull spot of light on the horizon began to glow. Orange light bled into the clouds and spread and darkened to a brilliant crimson. It reflected in the sea until both sea and sky appeared to be on fire, with the dark clouds adding a touch of smoky drama. An unforgettable experience.

We next headed back up the Overseas Highway for a different kind of wildlife, to the Everglades, famed for its grassland swamp, mangrove forests and multitudinous wildlife. It is such a huge area, covering 1.5 million acres – and that’s just the designated National Park – that we decided to stay overnight within the park to make the most of our brief stay.

We opted for the southernmost point of the National Park, heading west from Homestead to Flamingo on the Florida Bay coast, driving through about 30 miles of swampland on a road whose signs included warnings of panthers on the loose.

To do the Everglades justice requires a prolonged stay and probably visits at different times of the year. It is home to alligators and crocodiles, the Florida panther, white tailed deer, marsh rabbits, racoons, loggerhead turtles, manatees, dolphins, and fantastic birds such as the roseate spoonbill, the Everglades kite, the bald eagle – beloved emblem of America – several species of heron and wading birds, fish galore and countless tropical flowers, trees and rare plants and 28 varieties of snakes.

It’s a must for anyone who wants to see beautiful, wild creatures in their natural habitat and who cares about preserving a delicate ecosystem. Of course, because they are wild, there is no guarantee that you will see any of them! They do not appear to order.

Next day we booked two boat trips, one salt water, one freshwater. The ocean trip held the promise of seeing exotic sea birds, dolphins and perhaps the extraordinary manatees, or sea cows. But lashing, tropical rain eventually forced the skipper to return to base because he couldn’t see where he was going and his passengers couldn’t see anything! It was the only serious rain we encountered during two weeks in Florida. Just bad luck.

The bird life, however, was rich and we spotted an osprey taking a fish back to its nest and a bald eagle, pelicans, ibis, white and blue herons, and a rare roseate spoonbill, but we had to make do with seeing captive dolphins and manatees in an aquarium later in our trip.

The freshwater voyage took us along man-made canals through the mangrove forests and around tiny islands where we saw our first alligators, lurking log-like in the brackish water.

There were exotic birds in abundance and strange air plants that attach themselves to trees. Some resembled pineapples, and another, called Spanish moss, which is neither Spanish nor moss, draped itself from the branches like a grey-green gauze. It is not exclusive to the Everglades – we encountered it all over Florida – but it added to the eerie and exciting atmosphere of the place, to which we hope to return one day.