Sept 28 & 29 Little St. Simons Island, GA to St Mary’s, GA - Cumberland Island

Again a cloudy day…..this makes for a long day and the glare of an overcast day is hard on your eyes.  But at least it’s not pouring rain or thunderstorms.

The only picture i took all day was one of a shrimp boat covered with more birds than we'd ever seen on a shrimp boat...

We take a right off the Intercoastal and travel 3 miles up the St. Mary’s river to, where else?  St. Mary’s.  First problem - no one is on the docks to help us with the lines…and the current is strong - so the captain tells me to secure the bow line first, so i throw the line onto the dock and then jump off the boat and tie the line and grab the others and secure them…i’ve got us tied up by the time captain has come down off the flybridge!  second problem….docks are old…and had little crabby things running around, fast as hell, like cockroaches…i feared they would board the boat...via the lines....3rd problem….we walk to ‘check-in’ and pay up and stop by at least 4 buildings before we find the harbormaster’s office.  Nat Wilson, the harbormaster is sitting at a desk in an office about the size of a closet surrounded by at least four or five 32 ounce styrofoam cups and a tin FULL of cigarette butts.  You can imagine the smell - fish and cigarettes.  This is the first time that when i’ve seen someone smoking that it did not make me want to have one.  He never stopped smoking.  Nat was a black man, a very black man and Nat’s eyeballs were light blue and very bloodshot…Nat’s speech was very hard to understand…very southern with a mix of what may have been Gullah, a creole language unique to the African-American people living in the low country of GA and SC - fascinating…he seemed to me to be a bit troubled but he put on quite a show face and was overly kind and overly helpful - you know the type..  4th problem…the restrooms were gross!

St Mary’s is a quite, weird town but we did find a really good deli for a late lunch.  I’m going to stop bitching about it now.  We visited the Cumberland Island National Park station to ensure we had all we needed for the ferry ride over tomorrow morning and then we headed back to the boat, turned on the air conditioner, read a bit, played scrabble, packed our lunches for tomorrow and fixed spaghetti on board for dinner.

Sept 29

I was up early, excited to be doing something different!  We each headed out  - both with backpacks full of water, lunch, plates, rain gear, bug spray, binoculars, camera with both lenses and the cumberland island map.

The ferry departed right by our marina…it took 45 minutes to cruise out of the St. Mary’s river, across the ICW and into cumberland inlet.  And as soon as we landed i saw them….i saw what i had come to see - the wild feral (redundant i know) horses that graze the grounds and run the beaches and obviously poop incessantly…

Harry trying to tell the captain where to go.....just kidding....

ferry dock - south end

Cumberland Island is Georgia’s southern most barrier island and is 36,000 acres, 9,800 of which are protected.  The National Park Service bought the island in 1970 from the Carnegie family.  This 9,800 is made up of pristine beaches, huge sand dunes, salt marshes and a massive palmetto and live oak forest.  The pictures will say more than my words and hopefully convey how magical this place looked and felt.  The wildlife was amazing and would show itself so quickly that i did not have time to take a picture.  We saw wild horses, of course, wild turkeys, a huge buck with maybe 4 points, a large cat - we think it was a bobcat..all in a matter of a few hours.  

I thought the island was smaller and that i’d get to see it all…Greyfield Inn and the first African Baptist Church where John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessett were married and Plum Orchard one of the remaining Carnegie mansions.  But i learned quickly from a ranger that a day trip affords you enough time to visit the south end of the island.  This was good news actually, because i could then slow down and enjoy my journey instead of rushing to ensure i see it all.  It was SO good for Harry and I to take a trip OFF the boat.  we had a very good time even if we did wear ourselves plum out.

The below ruins are the Carnegie home that burned in the early 60s...  the wild turkeys seemed to like this area - did not see them anywhere else on the island.   

chestnut big guy horse....and this was how close i was to him...they were very used to those damn humans...

The trails were so quite and peaceful, felt full of something....maybe ghosts....only sounds we heard were scampering of a critter and the many mosquitoes trying to get in our ears and eyes....but i didn't care...the wonder to be in these woods was like nothing else....

After i ran into several sider webs, Harry cut me a palm frond i used to clear the path of spider webs..

After we saw what obviously was a cat...way up the trail...Harry grabbed a man stick and lead the way down the trail.

After awhile, perhaps we became braver... we laid our weapons down...and headed toward the beach...

high tide created many puddles...

and coming and going Harry walked right through the middle of this puddle....i walked around it....what does it mean????

And these are a couple of shots....that sum up the my favorite parts...palmettos and live oaks.....what a beautiful combination...and a beautiful day....  People can camp on Cumberland Island for a maximum of 7 days....and the campsites were gorgeous - inside this forest...

good bye cumberland island...hope to see more of you again one fine day.....