The Deep South

Reluctantly we turned the Subaru from the Outer Banks on a brilliantly sunny morning, after a huge downpour the night before, and headed south. We had decided not to risk the North Carolina ferry system which, by our investigations, seemed to be in disarray during the off-season due to maintenance, and providing an unpredictable service. Therefore we headed inland. Maybe the Outer Banks saved its best for last for us! We popped into the most beautiful village of Manteo as we left for a coffee and a last look over the sound. [Photo shows some buildings in Manteo's harbour area.]

It was a long day of driving via very flat back roads through farm towns, they grow cotton here in summer, heading for Wilmington NC for a stop overnight. Still plenty of water here in the low lands, alligators and bears aplenty here, although we did not see any. The inland waterways, which criss-cross everywhere, are crossed by huge bridges, unremarkable here, but they would be famous if in Australia. The main interest on this drive was a campaign called "No OLF" to resist the military building a new landing field which would destroy a large area of cotton land. Due to a road closure in Wilmington, it took us an hour to get through the suburbs, and in retrospect, we could have bypassed Wilmington altogether and headed for Myrtle Beach SC.

That mistake endured, we stayed in a delightful hotel over looking the Cape Fear River, in the Wilmington historical district, which is being saved and restored. A big picture window in our room allowed us to watch the barges and fishermen as dark fell [photo], and again as dawn broke. We enjoyed dinner in a nearby Irish Pub. The next morning Mike planned to run along the riverside boardwalk, but it was icy and way too slippery to be safe, so he settled on the hotel gym.

We are now well into "y'all" country. As soon as we had entered the Carolina's, we noted that accents take on the southern drawl, and it is just that little bit more difficult for us to be understood. Waiters, shopkeepers easily recognise that we are not from around here, but they never guess that we are speaking with Australian accents until we tell them.

It took us another big driving day to get to Charleston SC, where we saw the first of the southern style of cities. Charleston has been rebuilt many times, after a big earthquake in
1886, several fires and storms, and devastating cyclone Hugo in 1986. Of course it was badly burned in the civil war, where the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter, just out in the harbour. On the way, soon after we crossed the border into South Carolina, we saw Myrtle Beach, and Murrells Inlet, both lovely, nice and quiet. We fear they are the "holiday ghettos" in the summer, but Myrtle Beach in particular is a beautiful long beach blighted by too much development.

At last we crossed into Georgia, to enter Savannah GA, a city we had looked forward to visiting very much, since 10 years ago seeing the film directed by Clint Eastwood, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". The weather here is unusually cool, we see the people are not dressed for cold weather, and they are all complaining. It is snowing in Atlanta in upstate Georgia. Fearing rain, we straight away headed out on a walking tour of the historic district. What a beautiful place, just as we pictured it! Cobbled streets, lots of small squares [photo] with trees adorned with spanish moss, and statues and informative plaques. The statues commemorate war of independence victories, confederate generals and Indian chieftans. The squares are surrounded by beautiful period buildings. Everywhere the streets are lined with beautiful magnolia trees. The old town area is magnificently preserved and all the parks and squares seem to be so "unAmerican", meaning so unlike most cities we have seen. So much history here from the American Revolution, as well as the Civil War, and Civil Rights issues. Architecture is wonderful, much is preserved, and the old houses are magnificent. The city surrendered to the North, so was unburned by the troops, when they arrived. The riverfront area is in the progress of restoration - they've still got a way to go. The rain set in as we walked but we managed to get a lovely taste of Savannah.