Leaving Key WestLeaving Key West, we motored back along US1, stopping fro a delicious fish sandwich at Porky’s by the sea at Key Largo, we rode along at a slow pace, enjoying our thin roadway with blue water on either side until we came across the John Pennicamp national park, where Jacquie had found a place for us to snorkel on continental USA’s largest reef. We boarded our boat with a dozen others and headed out to the reef. After a 40-minute trip on the boat, we arrived at the reef, donned our masks and newly acquired snorkels and jumped off the boat, but after only a few minutes in the water, Jacquie started having some problems. With nothing to see immediately on leaving the boat, she had nothing to distract her from the coldness of the water and the whole breathing through a snorkel issue. We went back to the boat and then tried again after a brief respite, but it was too late. I was sent out on my own to enjoy the reef and the fish solo. I saw a couple of large Barracuda and an assortment of other beautiful fish in and around the reef, but the experience was dulled without Jacquie’s hand to hold.
We returned to the shore just as the sun was setting and headed off to our next night time stopover.

Sunset Cove was a lovely little Motel/resort that we had passed on the way down to Key West. The resort was made up of bungalows and beach cottages, an old airstream trailer and a motor home. We jumped at the chance of spending a night in the motor home, which was great, with the exception of the aforementioned bin men doing their thing at 5am!

Making up for our rude awakening, we were treated to a 6 year old episode of Eastenders’ as we went through the tedious routine of trying to fit our entire luggage back on the bike, which at this stage was still accompanied by my related tantrum. Fortunately this process became easier as we settled into a routine, sorted our bags out a bit better, and, more to the point Jacquie took charge.
We had another little hiccup on leaving the Sunset Cove, in search of the “Conch House” where we were told we could get the best breakfast south of Miami. We took ages packing the bike, then got a bit lost-which is quite hard to do where there is only one road – and when we finally found the right entrance, we had missed breakfast-by 5 minutes. We settled for a coffee and toast and headed back up to Miami.