Driving south from Myrtle Beach we stopped into Charleston for our 2nd visit to this charming ocean-front city. We took an early evening stroll past the waterfront parks and beautiful colonial homes initially used by the plantation owners for their summer retreat. After that we dropped into a popular oyster bar (standing room only) and eventually managed to get two seats at the bar in front of two master-shuckers who were working non-stop to keep up with the demands of the patrons....fun to watch and even better to taste.
The next day we drove further south to Savannah, Georgia, another one of our favourite places. Our original intent was to stay at Skidaway Island State Park but to our dismay we discovered that it was way past sold out due to a Going Coastal geocaching event organized by both the Georgia Geocachers Association and the Georgia State Parks. Being an avid geocacher I was even more disappointed after finding out that beyond the geocaching events they had planned a Flash Mob to kick off the w/e, a Cache In / Trash Out clean-up, a Johnny Depp Pirates movie and several other special activities all taking place in the state park, and all set up on the geocaching.com website. Apparently 600-700 people participated at a campground with only 87 sites so a lot of people must have stayed overnight in their vehicles outside the state park....which perhaps we should have tried to do. Instead we spent two nights on nearby Tybee Island which was also magical......25C weather, dolphins 20 metres from shore while we were sitting on the beach (which was a block from our campsite) and more fabulous seafood........shrimp ( a local specialty and film site for Forest Gump), crab, scallops and a bucket of oysters (minor shucking accident for the author).
Following the w/e we spent a day re-walking around the Savannah historical district and port area, complete with it's cobblestone streets. Then we arrived a few days late into Skidaway Island SP. The massive crowds had all departed by then, and we were the only ones at the Flash Mob co-ordinates site which was unfortunate since we didn't know what we were supposed to do....timing is everything :) However we had the park mostly to ourselves and we hiked around all the trails (approx. 10 km's) and did several geocaches including a 7 stage park sponsored hunt that let to a 'locked' treasure chest at the end which we were successfully able to open (none of Blackbeard's gold but we found a geocoin which we will transfer to a foreign destination). An evening campfire (with Campfire FX) completed a wonderful outdoors day.
We are a little sad to be leaving the coast where we have experienced above-average temperatures most days but we have a few more inland destinations to hit before starting our long journey back home.
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