the key to life....great days and wonderful beds!

maz the mermaid

it's just over two months since we left the village of hope for our sabbatical time and whilst we miss the project dearly we have begun to appreciate the time we have been allowed to travel to new places and see new sights. part of that experience includes moving around quite often so we have also met some amazing people and stayed in some incredible beds!

baseball!

our travels so far have extended over three continents, africa, europe and north america, into four countries, south africa, uganda, england and the United States and over many states and counties starting off with three in south africa the western cape, eastern cape and kwazulu-natal then onto the central district in uganda, two counties in our beloved england, those of buckinghamshire and the county of bristol and whilst travelling for the first time in america we have visited viginia, maryland, georgia, south carolina and this last week the beautiful sunshine state of florida. 

our mustang

by the way we also started our trip to the states in washington dc which isn't actually a state its a specific district, please see this link to wikipedia for the definition!

margaritatime

we are obviously travelling on a tight budget so whilst we have visited these amazing places we have had to do it as cost effectively as possible, therefore we have made use of beds provided in homes of our family and friends but when we have had to seek accommodation in new areas we have also made use of all our contacts and stayed with friends of friends, used the online airbnb network and even a domain called couchsurfing and that's how we have spent our last week as we travelled down from our wonderful hosts in augusta right the way down to the southern most tip of mainland USA in key west.

our own slick of paradise

seven mile bridge, rail road and automobile

last monday we picked up our first hire car in augusta, a very well equipped toyota corolla with an incredible leather interior and a huge engine fit for a supercar rather than a family run around, but hey we're in america where everything is big and the fuel is very very cheap. our first stop was just outside st augustine, a historic seaside town, however the weather wasn't kind to us and the sea fog stopped us enjoying what would have been our first views of the atlantic from the other side of the world.

tim at the drive thru ATM

open mike, USA style

bike to the beach, oh go on then

on tuesday we made our way to orlando to stay with debbie, a friend of a friend who made us feel very welcome, we also had the opportunity to attend our first real live baseball game which was fought between the atlanta braves and philladephia philles, we were cheering for the braves but the went down 3-5 in what has to be said was a very slow but intriging game. we wouldn't want to offend any of our american friends who love this sport but to say that we were seated right next to disneyland florida the game could have done with some spicing up from old walt himself. it seems that the pitcher (that's the guy that throws the little white ball incredibly fast at the batter, or hitter) is really in control of the game and unless the batter or hitter can strike the ball way out of the park there is little chance of getting a home run as all the fielders are wearing huge gloves which makes catching the ball, and therefore getting one of the batters 'out', so easy that i think my sister could catch one that was hit so high in the air that it had snow on!....maybe time for some water hazards, bunkers and moguls to make it a little harder, or even less fielders or heaven forbid take the large gloves off, that might make the game a little more exciting. that said we had a blast, the fans were friendly, none of the football chanting and swearing that we hear in england, and i (tim) even got to keep one of the many hundreds of balls that were used in the game. strike one!

by tuesday the sun had come out and just in time as we picked up our second hire car, a ford mustang convertible which we had hired via some air miles saved up from my time working in europe many many moons ago. this was the perfect car to travel down from miami to the truly stunning keys which sit at the south eastern tip of the united states, although the car wasn't fitted with the massive 5 litre (funny how they still used gallons under the imperial system but rate the size of engines under the litre and therefore metric system here!) engine that is available, however the 3.7litre engine was quite powerful enough to speed the car along at 55mph.....the only time we were able to let it loose was when setting off from the traffic lights, which was quite often cause there are loads of traffic lights here, when i (tim) could do my lewis hamilton impression with a 0-60 of around 5 seconds it only took a little under that to hit the speed limit!

the florida keys are an incredible strip of tiny islands which arc out into the atlantic and mexican gulf, with large bridges, one over seven miles long, which stretch over the aqua blue waters which hold host to many hundreds, if not thousands, of plant and marine life. it was a truly once in a lifetime experience to drive down the US1 which connects key west at mile marker zero all the way to the mainland 127 or so miles away.

the first night in the keys was spent in our first couchsurfing experience, we were hosted by the wonderfully attentive and inclusive kimberley and her partner and best friend in their home in islamorada, they made us very welcome, let us use their bikes to visit the local beaches with their warm waters and fish life, shame we got a puncture which slowed our progress, they even took us to a friends house for an early party jamming session. kimberly and her friend mary are great singers and later that evening we went to an open mike type event where mary sang and we all cheered her on.

by the friday we had to move on this time to a friend of a friends home in marathon which sits almost in the middle of the keys, jennifer was our amazing host and she also made us feel very welcome, along with her two attentive cats. we enjoyed suppers together, time at the beach and best of all we got to visit the local dolphin research centre were jennifer had worked for many years. she knew all of the dolphins by name and we must say that we're sure that those dolphins recognised her so well. 

on saturday evening jennifer had booked us on a boat trip with a difference, the difference being that we were going out with a group practicing their yoga class, all well and good we hear you cry but tim's balance and flexibiltiy isn't the best on dry land let lone when bobbing up and down on the ocean, however maz seemed to get on well and soaked up the zen with jen!

on sunday we made the extra fifty of so mile trip down to the bohemian town which is key west, key west has some amazing architecture like none we had experienced in america before and whilst on the trolley bus tour we were able to take in some of the sights, the different style of buildings and the homes of many famous people including ernst hemmingway (long since past). we also had time to sup a margarita or two however they still don't compare to gerry's down at zest in gordons bay, south africa and visit the most southern point in mainland america, all very touristy but one has to do it sometimes.

one thing we have noticed is the plethora of state parks which help to protect what is a very fragile environment, our best visit was to one called bahia honda which sits just to the south east of the famous seven mile bridge which henry flagler had had built as part of his railroad dream to connect key west to the rest of the united states, a feat that he achieved in 1912 just two years before his death and although the bridge has now been replaced by a hugely impressive road bridge parts of it remain open to the public and we were able to spend a few hours walking from marathon to pigeon key along it. our day at bahia honda was picture perfect, we found a couple of palm trees to sit under and enjoyed bathing, and maz as normal, upping her competition to become a mermaid, snorkeling as if her life depended on it.

to cap off our trip the the united states we couldn't pass by the oppertunity to use a drive through ATM (bank) but us being us we had to do it slightly differently, so we drove through on our bikes!

today we fly out from miami on the next stage of our adventure, a month at the YWAM base in grenada, where we hope to get some real chill out time, we know that sounds strange but since we left south africa we really haven't had that much time on our own and that is key to this part of our sabbatical so we hope that the guys are ready to point us in the direction of the beach and let us read, swim and further relax in preparation for our more reflective, retreat and reinvigorating times to come.

goodbye america we'll be back!