The Boondocks of South Carolina

It's official: we are in the boondocks. I saw the sign. This area is also known as the Low Country of the Carolinas. Yesterday we passed into South Carolina, left the Interstate and drove through Beaufort to Hunting Island State Park on a barrier island on the coast. This is a huge campground, over 200 sites, located in a forest of pine, live oak, magnolia, and palmetto trees. The beach is unique in that it has a stand of ghost trees, trees that have been killed by the encroaching seawater and exist as fragments in one stage or another. The truly amazing ones are those with their root systems exposed. Mother Nature is quite the artist.

On our way out here, we had the bad luck to hit a red light at the drawbridge. Drawbridge is somewhat of a misnomer in this case because it revolved sideways to let the yacht pass instead of drawing up. Either way, you would not want to be in the wrong place in your crossing and plenty of safeguards make sure that you aren't.

We were happy to see, about a mile from our campground, a small outdoor market. The sign advertising beer and wine drew us in, but the fresh fish and vegetables really got us. We decided to cook! Teresa, you have to tell Larry. We walked out with crab claws without really thinking too much about how we would be cracking the things open. Our tools may not be too refined but they were effective. The veggies were delicious and some went into the scrambled eggs this morning. Enough of that!

This place is a campground as opposed to an RV park. People have fires going, everyone is outside, children are playing on the beach and around the common areas, the bathrooms are sandy, totally delightful! Our major requirements for good bathrooms are here: hot showers with good water pressure. We were very fortunate in selecting our site since there were only four available; I just took a wild guess and picked #13. We can see the ocean from our door/windows and our site is huge. Privacy doesn't really exist in this campground but I can live with that.

This morning I managed to get up early enough to get some sunrise photos. In fact, I was on the beach way too early. I will be smarter next time and wait until I hear the birds singing since that is the true sign that sunrise is near.