Day 16 10.4 continued…
For the next hour I had severe eye leakage. I dripped & poured & my heart broke to leave those two precious girls. I hope we get to see them again…very, very soon. (OK…move on…don’t think about it or you’ll start the tears all over again!)
I made a brief stop at a Publix (love these stores!) & then stopped at Aardwolf Brewery in Jacksonville. I had a flight of 4 stouts & some food from the food truck (although he was inside as the rest of us were…it was pouring rain outside).
I took the time to drive around Amelia Island, which I’d never been to before. I thought it was just ok. No real views of the beaches & water. Then I drove to Fernandina beach which had lots of public access to the beaches & some pretty views as you drive along. It’s still raining, so the beach was empty.
Fernandina beach looked like a pretty cute little town!
Day 17 10.5
I’d passed up going to the Cumberland Island National Seashore in the past when I’ve been in this area, but decided to go on this trip. I drove out of Florida & barely crossed the Georgia state line.
The only way to get to the island is by a ferry or private boat, so I made a reservation to take the ferry over today. You can camp on the island, but I was only going for the day (& good thing, because there are no-seeums everywhere in this area & on the island too. These annoying pesky little monsters love to bite my head & I’ve had way to much experience & so many bites from them in the past).
I was in town early, checked in with the NPS, then walked to the ferry.
Then we were off. It’s a pretty small ferry, but it was full. I sat outside in the chilly morning air for the 45 minute ride, not only to social distance & to see the views better, but to make sure I wouldn’t get motion sickness.
Once at the island, I took off on the first trail I found, looking for the famous wild horses that inhibit the island. They are truly wild & have been there for many, many years. They aren’t fed or looked after medically, just roam wherever, eat whatever they find (more like a deer’s diet than a horses diet) & what happens, happens. But I had high hopes I’d see these beautiful horses.
After a mile or so hike through the palms & under the moss, I found them! I found a place to sit & just watched as they munched grass & worked their way closer to where I was. Yes!
So, here’s a gazillion photos of the wild horses of Cumberland Island!
I think they’re pretty magical & have been trying all year to see wild horses. There are some in Colorado I”d wanted to see, but those plans got nixed with the fires this year, so super happy & grateful to get to see these beautiful creatures up close.
A bit of history about the island: In the late 1800’s one of the Carnegie’s (another wealthy east coast family & yes…the same one of famed ‘Hall’ ) bought 4,000 acres on the island which included the Dungeness ruins. The ruins were from an 1803 mansion that had burned down in 1818. The Carnegie family built several other mansions on the island for their family. In 1972, National Seashore was established on the island. One of the mansions is now an Inn (about $525 a night) & another can be toured in non-Covid years. See? just a little bit of history. So there are quite a few buildings you can walk around as well as seeing the ruins.
There are no ‘outside’ (only NPS) motor vehicles allowed on the property & only a couple of roads on this part of the island. This one leads up to the entry way to the ruins.
The front of the Dungeness ruins.
The backside of these impressive ruins.
But, they seem kind of breathtaking when the horses arrived to feast in the backyard.
The view from the back of the ruins…pretty sweet!
There was a lot more to explore as random paths wound in & out of the huge mossy oak & palm trees. One took me by an old cemetery on the grounds. Away from the ruins, you’ll run into a bunch of other old smaller buildings. It evidently took a lot of staff to help run the islands mansions….theres ruins for a recreation center, a building just for laundry, for staff, etc. Crazy.
I took off towards the sandy paths to the ocean & found….more horses! I watched them for awhile, just snacking away. But, then carefully, walked around off the trail so I wouldn’t get too close to these magnificent wild animals!
I had a mile & 1/2 beach walk to get back to the next trail. I was super windy & cold. I ate lunch on a log & the wind blew part of it away! Eek! I ran down the beach trying to pick up my piece of trash with no luck. I made my way back to my pack & picked up the scattered pretzels from the sand, wiped them off as best I could, & ate them covered in hummus anyway. Fiber of the ickiest kind.
As I fought the chilly damp wind, I saw an eagle fly by…Yes! Then I watched it perch on this lone tree…it didn’t look like the wind was a problem at all.
Because of the weather & the distance to hike back to the entry, the beach was practically empty.
The ferry didn’t leave until late afternoon, & the rain was down to just dripping, so I re-hiked the trails again (except the beach hike). The no-seeums would attack if you sat down anywhere, so this also kept me on the move most of the day. I saw the horses again, walked the road & the paths through the trees.
Back on the ferry & sitting outside again, we all spotted dolphins as we made our way back.
Day 18 10.6
It continued to rain through last night & this morning. I’d decided to go on a hunt on St. Simon’s island for Tree Spirits. I’d read that a wood carver has created these small pieces of art throughtout the island & I thought it would be great way to explore a new place. I was there very early in the morning finding the first one by the Visitors Center. It was the most impressive, but I followed the clues & found all seven.
Following clues I’d found on the internet, the hunt took me all around the town. Here’s most of them.
The area looked like it had some cute shopping spots, & lots of diversity in the types of homes (with the biggest yards ever!) but not great views of the water from the roads. But, I did drive by a lot of open space & parks on the island.
My next stop was south of Savannah, called Wormsloe Historic Site. This is one of the most photographed roads in Georgia as it’s lined with more than 400 oak trees. I paid a small admission fee & did some walking on the trails.
One of the ‘sites’ to see are the remains of the Tabby house. I’d never heard this term before but it’s named after a type of concrete made by burned oyster shells to create lime, mix it with water, sand, ash, broken shells & it looks like anything else you can find to throw in the mix. Looks ingenious for it’s day.
Close up of all the stuff that built this house.
I made the drive into Savannah to spend the rest of the day. I’d done a similar trip to Savannah & Charleston back in 2012, but that was the only time I’ve been here, so I thought it was worth another visit. I ate lunch at Tubbys, an outdoor bar that had fresh local peel & eat shrimp, them started my self-touring the rest of the day. I love the architecture here & walked about 7 miles taking in a lot of the squares (there are 22 of them; I didn’t see them all), the historic districts, the shopping districts, the market district & one of the breweries.
I had a beer from Moon River brewing (the breweries name & this whole district is named after Mercer who wrote the lyrics for the song "Moon River”), supposedly the most haunted brewery & building in the area. I love all this haunted & voodoo stuff in Savannah! The other thing I love about Savannah’s alcohol laws, is that you can walk around this part of town with your ‘beer to go’….nice to do while exploring these places!
After walking all day, I decided to end my tour of historic Savannah with supposedly the best piece of pecan pie offered in the area. It was at the River House (in the river district…every area is some sort of named “ district” has a name it seems) & it did not disappoint!
I wanted to visit a couple more breweries on the other side of the town.
Two Tides brewery had a tiny upstairs taproom, but you could walk through a large window to sit on a pretty tiny balcony…so that’s where I enjoyed my Tiramisu Imperial Stout.
I stopped by Coastal Empire brewery which is small & was practically empty, but had a yummy barrel aged Savannah Brown.