| It is a wonderful beach along most of the Florida coast, and away
from the highly-developed areas it is more accessible, if only you can find
somewhere to park. The sand
is mostly pure white but in places has a reddish brown tinge which is largely crushed
shell. Although the beach is renowned for its surfing, the waves were only
1-2ft and so there was little activity. This is actually the beach at
Cocoa Beach. |  |
 | In the afternoon
sun the sea birds all line up along the water's edge and face into the
setting sun - or is it into the wind? The
odd thing is that they ALL do it. We've seen this before but have no real idea
why. |
We saw several different varieties with both mature and immature birds.
And a number of 'disabled' ones with only one leg, although it didn't seem to
affect them much. Here we have a sandwich tern, which is uncommon, but are the
only ones with yellow tipped black beaks. The middle one is a royal tern from
the orange beak and the crest. It is strictly limited to salt water. The last
one is probably a laughing gull which is quite common on this coast.|
Even the hotels up here are artistic. This is a Sheraton and is at the
south end of Cocoa Beach.. |  |
 | The 'surf shop of
the world' is Ron Jon's. This is the main shop in Cocoa Beach, the centre of
east coast surfing. It looks fairly spectacular outside but more like an
ordinary, if large, store inside. The original shop was in New Jersey but it
is now an extensive chain. |
| It does have some fairly neat statues outside picturing surfing,
skateboarding, windsurfing, etc. There are in fact several shops and a
restaurant all as part of the chain. |  |
 | Behind Ron
Jon's is Fawlty Towers. It is amazing to think there were only twelve
episodes. The Americans think it is wonderful. They also think that is what
England is like! |
| We actually camped at Canaveral City which is a major east coast
cruise centre. There are three or four ships leaving every day, including a
casino ship which goes out for free 5 hour cruises - presumably they get
paid through the slot machines and gaming tables on board. This is a proper
cruise ship, the
Fantasy from the Carnival Line. It does 3 and 4 day cruises to Nassau. |  |
 | We heard this very
loud sound
like someone practicing a large French horn in the next camper, playing the
first phrase of 'When you wish upon a star'. It turned out to be the
departure fanfare from the Disney cruise ships. |
| I started this page with a beach facing south, this is the beach facing
north. The dunes are protected and used in season by sea turtles to lay
their eggs. We are now a little further up the coast at Anastasia State
Park, just south of St Augustine. |  |
 | This is from the
same beach facing south. There are about 4.5 miles of it within the state park
and on this day it was virtually empty. Mind you, it was not a warm day. The overnight
temperature was below freezing, and even in the sunshine it did not get
above 50°F because of a considerable chill
factor in the wind from the north west. |
| This is a bit of the brown beach showing how it is made up from
crushed shells rather than the pure white sand which is silica. |  |
 | At times you
can get both the white (foreground) and the brown (background) against a
backdrop of the Atlantic. |
| You are allowed to take your car on the beach (Americans don't
walk anywhere). But the park ranger keeps an eye on you. There are some
soft bits so I think I would want four wheel drive before trying it. |  |
 | We finally left
Florida through Jacksonville, the largest city in the US - just in
geographic area I assume. |
| And on into the flat coastal plains of Georgia. We had to come
well inland since there are no roads on the coast and it is sparsely
populated. The coast is mainly salt marsh. |  |
|