In the 1930s, Florida turpentine workers described a place called Diddy-Wah-Diddy. It's a land of leisure where day-to-day worries disappear. If a traveller there is hungry, all they have to do is sit down and, before long, dinner comes running up with a knife and fork, yelling: "Eat me! Eat me!" As one book of Southern folklore puts it: "Everybody would live in Diddy-Wah-Diddy if it were not so hard to find." And while it's true Diddy-Wah-Diddy isn't marked on any map, the stretch of the Florida panhandle between Apalachicola and the Aucilla river matches its description perfectly.
The wild rivers and forgotten coasts of north Florida are some of the state's greatest treasures and produce some of its tastiest cuisine. Natives express surprise that the region is so overlooked by tourists, but take great pride in their condo-free expanses of undeveloped beaches. For the traveller seeking a unique landscape and a meal crying "Eat me!", it's the place to be.
Long, winding stretches of road, river and coastline are punctuated by pit stops: just past the intersection of US 98 and state road 267, you pull off to buy local delicacies from the back of a pick-up truck – brownpaper bags of boiled peanuts, jars of mayhaw jelly, and tupelo honey from deep in the swamps; canoeing down the Wacissa river, you tie up for a dip in clear, spring-fed waters; hiking through the 70,000 acres of cypress swamps, longleaf pinewoods and coastal marshes of St Mark's National Wildlife Refuge, you'll stop to catch a breath and a view of nesting ospreys. There's no hurry: the pit stops are the adventure.
"Y'all headin' down to Wakulla?" is a question commonly posed when introducing someone to the region. Of course we're headed down to Wakulla. You don't bring a person to north Florida and not take them to Wakulla Springs. You don't miss diving from the two-storey concrete tower into one of the world's largest freshwater springs. You don't miss the art deco Wakulla Springs Lodge overlooking the swimming area. And you definitely don't miss the lobby's 11ft 2in (3.4m) stuffed alligator and his slightly livelier cousins sunning themselves outside.
Your stomach draws you down towards the coast. First to Ouzts' Too at the St Mark's River bridge in Newport . If it's a Thursday (the oyster bar and grill's not open on Monday and Tuesday), the fresh-shucked oysters are on special for $6 a dozen and the beer $2 a glass. The rest of the week the oysters will run you $7.99 for a baker's dozen – still quite a deal.
In Panacea, further down the highway, the Coastal Restaurant (1305 Coastal Highway, +1 850 984 2933, no website) indulge in grouper, redfish, shrimp, blue crabs, stone crabs and gator bites, all served with cheese grits and hush puppies (cornbread balls). When the Coastal can keep them in stock, gator bites are $6.99, all-you-can-eat fried shrimp is $13.99 and a platter of fish, shrimp, oysters, devil crab, hush puppies and sides can be had for $16.99.
Or you could turn instead toward the waterside and Posey's Dockside Cafe (99 Rock Landing Road, +1 850 713 0014) will have smoked mullet waiting. Some residents of south Florida would have you believe mullet is a bait fish. They've never been to Posey's.
By the afternoon, you get your first real sight of the ocean. US 98 turns west and hugs the coastline, where the beaches are fine white sand, born from quartz in the Appalachian mountains. My mother tells the story of northern visitors who arrived at night and wouldn't set out in a bathing suit the next morning because they thought all that whiteness was snow on the ground. So, pull over. Enjoy.
When you at last get back in the car, you'll cross the bridge into Apalachicola right around sunset. A breeze blows through the historic centre. There are rocking chairs on the porch at the Gibson Inn (doubles from $115). You'll be ready for another dozen oysters, and in Apalachicola they're wild and fresh and fat. You've found Diddy-Wah-Diddy.
Erin Chapman, native Floridian and co-editor of The American Guide (theamericanguide.org)
• For more information on holidays in the USA, visit DiscoverAmerica.com
