The city of Miami Beach lies on a barrier island separated from the mainland by the broad expanse of the Intracoastal Waterway, a network of broad lagoons and lakes that provide a continuous route for large vessels right up the east coast of Florida from Miami northwards. A whole series of different barrier islands are linked to the mainland and, sometimes, to each other, and my way ahead took me along many of them, following the many miles of glorious, sandy beaches. It meant crossing a lot of swing bridges, which was the only chance I had to cycle up of down hill!
On many of the barrier islands, you are only a matter of a mile or less from water on both sides. There is almost continuous beach front development for more than a hundred miles to the north of Miami, and much of it is quite exclusive, with private beaches. In other places, such as my first ten miles today, there were well made bike paths all along the shore, and people out taking many forms of exercise alone or with companions. For some people here, fitness seems to be a big part of life. There are outdoor gyms, cycling, walking and running, and all manner of beach activities, including volleyball.
The route along the coast was only interrupted around Fort Lauderdale airport and sea port, where it became rather scrufffy and industrial for a few miles. But then I was crushing Fort Lauderdale beach – the most traditional promenade ai have seen – where the beaches were crowded with many young people this St Patrick’s Day. I’m not sure I have ever seen so many young people on a beach all together as right here today. Quite a sight. They seemed to be having a lot of fun.
Later I cycled along the coast in upmarket Boca Raton, where the Ocean Drive was a series of sumptuous, older villas, mainly built in an ornate mock Spanish style. They were in manicured grounds and there were no stopping points along this section of coastline. I can’t imagine the wealth you need to live here. It seems to extend to the ownership of luxury yachts, however. Even in the more modern developments, there were endless rows of high rise residences and hotels lining the beach front. Several bore the name Trump. More still had artificial waterfalls cascading down to their driveways, rather like Las Vegas casinos. It was all tasteful, in some cases even attractive, but the overall effect was one of quite unnecessary privilege.
However you look at it, this corner of America simply drips with excess wealth. I have been lucky enough to travel the world widely, and see and even experience real privilege, but despite previous trips even to places like Monaco, the sheer scale of this wealth here has surprised me. It has been a cycling trip like no other so far. But I cannot deny that it is very beautiful in its own way. How much more could there be of it?
