Redbeard Travels: A corner of Florida, part 4

Carrying down on Highway 1A along the east coast of Florida, it was soon time for a 'first' on my travels: my first ride on a car ferry.

Just outside the gates to Kingsley Plantation, the coastal highway turns inland and heads to Jacksonville. In order to avoid this 24-mile detour, there is a car ferry here across the wide mouth of the St Johns River to Mayport.

For five dollars, you can drive onto a barge that shuttles back and forth across the river all day. With impeccable timing, we pulled in just as the ferry was loading, so without having to wait ours was the next to last car to fit onboard.

The journey itself is not that exciting, unless you are a Kansas farm boy at heart like me. The ferry is so quick you are advised to stay in your car for the 5-minute voyage.

I only managed a couple photos from inside the car, but you can see the ferry on Google Maps.

Next stop, St Augustine, which bills itself as the Nation's Oldest City (a claim the inhabitants of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico would dispute). More accurately, St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States, but that doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, does it?

Quibbling aside, one thing is for certain: it was time for another 'first' in our travels!

Here's a clue!

As a surprise, I had booked us on a helicopter tour above the town. When I announced this as we pulled in to the airport, Christian replied 'Oh no' which was not the reaction I was after.

St Augustine's airport terminal is small (worringly small) but posh. I handed over our details to a chap at the helicopter desk. He set aside his sandwich and said, 'Give me a minute and we'll be ready.' Yes, this was our (worringly young) pilot, but he did have one of those bomber jackets which they only allow proper pilots to wear...I hope.

As we went past the runway a stunt plane was diving to the ground. It pulled up at the last second, shot back up into the sky and flipped over upside-down while doing a loop. Not the sort of acrobatics you want to see before taking your first helicopter ride.

We pulled up to his (worringly little) helicopter and posed for a quick photo so the local authorities would be able to identify our remains.

I've seen plenty of cop shows and thriller movies, so it was disappointing that we were not allowed to bend over and run up to the chopper as the blades were spinning. 'That would give you a haircut you would not want,' he said. We were given headphones with mics, which was some consolation. For some reason I now had the M*A*S*H* theme tune in my head.

The rotors began to spin, which caused the copter to throb (a bit worringly). Then with a nudge to the throttle we floated straight up into the air.

Unlike a plane, there were no g-forces pulling at us to make us queasy and soon we were soaring over the swamps, across the beach and out to sea where the pilot pointed out a school of dolphins frolicking in the surf.

We followed the coastline to St Augustine and flew at a height over the 300-year-old Spanish fort, the Castillo de San Marcos.