and then proceeded to do the tour anyway as the rain stopped as quickly as it
had begun. He was very insistent that we have our money back, and was at
pains to point this out to another group of visitors who entered the park
informing them: 'I'm giving a tour, but don’t worry, I have given them their
money back!' It was as if he expected them to report him for being
unscrupulous.
Despite this evident streak of paranoia, our guide was very friendly and
made the tour quite personal, chatting to us about where we were from,
showing us photos of his family, and so forth. He also had a stutter,
particularly evident with the word 'coral' - extremely unfortunate as Windley
Key is a fossilized coral reef! As it turned out this was not as big an issue as
we expected, seeing as the tour consisted almost entirely of tree recognition
lessons - in particular how to spot poisonwood and understand the allergic
reactions induced by not spotting it soon enough. Even when we were
standing right next to a huge expanse of exposed fossils talk turned (bizarrely)
to the role of women in politics. Perhaps he was deliberately avoiding the 'c'
word? The tour was certainly more memorable and entertaining than if we had
taken the self-guided trail.
After the tour we tried chatting further to the ranger and his male
colleague about our travels. However we soon realized they were more
interested in talking to each other, in a kind of patois borne either from low
visitor numbers, or from love. So we left, quietly, after putting our refunds in
the donation jar.
The last week of our travels was predominantly dry and sunny. We spent