South Carolina to Georgia

With the Jampot behind us we headed for South Carolina. We had no plans to visit any particular places here and consequently felt a little lost. A time in the trip when we both felt quite homesick, thankfully not on the same days!! ( Thank you Matt and Mike for your much needed txts).We knew we had a month to fill in before the Barber Festival weekend, so we parked up at Croft St Park to relax and try and figure out a plan of action. No swimming in the lake of course but fishing and boat hire if we wanted to. Went for a wee nature walk and met up with some guys who were panning for gold. This is their lively hood and they have been traveling all around America trying to make their fortune. They hadn’t become millionaires but they were making enough to put gas in their RV and beer in their fridge so they were happy. They told us all about the various snakes including the Water Moccasin (Cottonmouth) snake which can become aggressive and will attack unlike most of the others which will slither away so I decided swimming in the river was out.
After a couple of lazy days fishing and still no real plan we continued south stopping at Dreher Island St Park where we caught a couple of small fish but nothing to put in the pan. We were here on a Friday night and it was just amazing to watch the weekend campers arrive with their toys!! Even those tenting had enough stuff to sink a battle ship. No such thing as roughing it when you go camping here.

Packed the fishing gear away and headed towards Charleston. We called in on some friends of John and Heather’s, planning to have a coffee and be off but we ended up staying with them for a few nights.
We rode out to Beidler State Forest which was really neat. It is a large area of virgin swamp, untouched by man. Due to the drought the swamp was almost dry in parts so the Cyprus roots which are normally partially under water were fully exposed and there were no signs of any alligators or snakes. We did get to see a Barred Owl which apparently is not a common happening. That was pretty cool.

Gary took us for a tour of Charleston. We went over to Pleasant Point on the new suspension bridge which was a real work of art and then onto Patriots Point to have a look at the aircraft carrier in the naval museum. Gary had offered to take my pushbike with us so I could bike over the new bridge and the only reason I declined was because the drought had finally broken, and it was persisting down. We went to the tourist market in down town Charleston but my handbrake was with me so no purchases were made. Gary drove us around stopping here and there to show us various buildings and points of interest. Charleston is a very beautiful old town and it was just such a pity it chose to rain that day. We had planned to leave the next day but we had taught Gary and Arlette how to play 500 so they wanted another night of cards so we delayed our departure another day. Thankfully we were able to hold them out and win the series.

The days spent with Gary and Arlette were a lot of fun and once on the road again we both felt quite rejuvenated and ready to travel again, but we suddenly realized that we had dilly dallied to long and time was slipping away. We had to get down to Florida, ride the Keys, visit the Everglades and then get back up to Alabama for the Barber Festival weekend mid October. We now had just over two weeks to do it.

With the camper pointed in the direction of Georgia we headed off. We spent the first night at Fort McAllister St Park. Did a bit of fishing but again nothing!!
On my early morning bike ride I ran over a small headless snake, saw a turtle and an armadillo. The armadillo was very flat having come off second best with a car.
We had a wander around the preserved earthwork fortifications of Fort McAllister. This was a Confederate stronghold and withstood many attacks before finally being overrun by General Sherman’s troops. The land was purchased by Henry Ford in the 1930’s and he began the restoration of the fort. It is now owned by the State of Georgia.
We spent the next night at Crooked River St Park, ten miles from the Florida State Line. Went for a walk along the river, but had to cut that short when we started getting attacked by vicious prickles that were obviously working in tandem with the mossies, who were equally nasty !!
We didn’t do Georgia justice which is a shame but a sacrifice had to be made and that was it.


Tomorrow we will be in Florida. The forecast looks pretty good for the next week so hopefully we won’t run into any hurricanes as that is the season Florida is in now. They have five seasons you know - winter, spring, summer, hurricanes and fall.