Greetings from Ocracoke Island
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| The Outer Banks (that's Ocracoke way down at the bottom) |
I've never been to the
Outer Banks before and I'm definitely coming back! I've heard of some of the towns (and you probably have too -- Cape Hatteras, Nags Head, Rodanthe, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk), but I doubt I could have found them on a map before this trip. The Outer Banks (or
OBX as they call them here) are a 200-mile long narrow strip of barrier islands that run along much of the North Carolina coast and on up to Virginia. They are a fragile finger of land, not much more than a sandbar with vegetation in places, perennially threatened by Hurricanes and known as the
Graveyard of the Atlantic due to the hundreds of ships (dating back to the 16th century) that have sunk in their shallow, wind-swept waters. They are so narrow in some spots that you can see the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the road and Pamlico Sound on the other. Since we've only seen Ocracoke Island, I guess I can't comment on what we'll encounter to the north, where I hear it's much more crowded, but down here on the southern most tip, we've been blown away by the wide sandy beaches and the quaint, historical town. After a so-so night of camping on the mainland in Croatan National Forest (our first camping in almost 1-1/2 months -- ouch!), we took the two-and-a-quarter hour ferry from Cedar Island to Ocracoke Island.
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| Little Red on the Cedar Island ferry |
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| Cedar Island ferry |
Once here, we realized that we were onto something very special. Many of the beaches here on Ocracoke are part of the
Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a protected preserve, so they are wide, undeveloped and go on for miles and miles . . .
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| Erin walking along one of Ocracoke's long, white sand beaches |
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| And on the other side of the rise . . . |
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| Our campsite at Ocracoke National Park ($23 a night, no reservations) |
One of the things that we love about this island is that we can watch both:
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| Sunrises . . . |
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| . . . and sunsets over the water. |
BONUS: One little shout-out to a regular blog reader and great horse lover (and horse owner), Mona. Below is what they call a
Banker Horse or
Ocracoke Pony on this island. They are the wild descendants of a breed of horses that are thought to be survivors of a 16th century Spanish shipwreck, although their provenance is still speculated on to this day. They used to run wild, but now they are taken care of by the National Park Service. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banker_horse.
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| Two Ocracoke Ponies |
Saddle up one of those ponies and ride cowboy! Or not. It looks amazing there! I've really been enjoying traveling via your blogging. Makes me wish I were on the road myself sometimes. But then I'd miss seeing the changing colors on the south hills and the geese making their fall journey over the valley. Sometimes they fly so low over the farm in the evening that I can hear the beating of their wings. It's a beautiful world out there. Keep exploring and enjoying!
ReplyDeleteFunny you should comment about "saddling up." Part of the Banker Horse story is that for several years, I believe in the 50s, the local boy scouts rode the ponies in the only mounted boy scout troop in the country: Mounted Boy Scout Troop 290. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing geese migrating up north here as well. When I lived in New Jersey for a few years I used to love hearing the huge flocks heading south in the fall. Glad to hear I still have a regular reader. We broke camp and are leaving Ocracoke this morning and heading north on the OBX. Stay tuned. Peace, Rusty
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