July 16, 2012 Havelock NC to Ocracoke Island NC

Not quite as early morning as we would have liked.  Patti couldn’t quite stand getting out the door at 6:00 so we pushed things a bit further back and left around 8:00 or so.  First thing was a chance to take a little ferry (more like large boat) out from Hawkers Island to see The Cape Lookout Light.  In order to see the lighthouse, you have to go to this island.  The lighthouse is a lovely, black and white diamond design.  Because we slept in, we wouldn’t have time to walk around on the island, but they were happy to have us ride out and then come back.  One of the fun parts was that we went along with a boatload of North Carolinian surfers.  We got to talk with thee seven young surfers about surfing here verses San Diego. One guy had been in Ocean Beach in San Diego County and he confirmed, yep, it is a LOT colder in CA than here in the water.

We were then able to go to the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center.  There we met a delightful couple that was volunteering at the center for the summer.  Last summer they spent volunteering at Dick’s favorite of all of the National Parks:  the Grand Tetons.  We enjoyed swapping stories with them about parks and then time to go:  we had another ferry to catch.

 On our return from Cape Lookout, we detoured to slowly pass by Shackleford Island.  This is the island with a herd of wild horses which were descended from Spanish horses which had swum ashore from ships sunk off the outer banks.  There were over 100 horses on the island and we were able to catch a glimpse of a couple which were grazing near the shore.  It was an exciting moment for us.

The next couple of days will be spent on what is known as The Outer Banks of North Carolina.  If you look at a map, these are tiny little islands that stretch all along the coast of North Carolina, and are reachable by bridges midway and at the top, but by ferry  lower down.  They were very isolated for many years, and turned into primo vacation sites for people on the East coast.  

This one was a real large ferry going out to Ocracoke Island.  We saw its sister ferry going the other way.  It took nearly 2 hours and Dick was enchanted by spending most of it on the deck and chatting with the crew.  He so enjoys watching the waves and trying to figure out where we are going.

Once on the island we found our way to a beautiful lighthouse, the Ocracoke Light. There is a lovely lighthouse on Ocracoke and we saw it this afternoon.  The only real trouble was it is in the midst of the busy touristy section of town and we could hardly get a parking spot.   This whole Outer Banks area of NC is filled with treacherous water, because there are so many shallow areas and sandbars.  Hundreds of ships have crashed there over the years, so we had a lot of respect for the ferryboat captain who seemed to know where to go and what areas to avoid.

Landing on the island, we got the chance to settle in and chose a campsite at the National Park service campground.  This was right backed up to the beach and we were able to take advantage of this to take an afternoon swim.  There were signs that there were sea turtle nests in the area.  We love the fact that they are watching out for these sea creatures.

We were so glad to get some photos and then retreat to our quiet campground. The park ranger gave us some really food-oriented advice as to places for dinner on the island.  We couldn't think if we had ever met a park ranger who was a foodie before.  We chose a lovely place for dinner The Back Porch restaurant.  We both had lovely food, served by a great young woman who was getting ready for her final class before she completed nursing school.  We both know what an accomplishment that is, and gave her lots of encouraging words.  While we were at dinner, we heard about a storytelling program that would be happening in the evening. This would be at The Deepwater Theater. This would feature a father and daughter storytelling pair, Philip and Amy Howard, telling stories about living on the island.  They were joined by a fiddler player.  Sounded perfect to us, and so we spent a couple of hours listening to some great local lore including about some of their ancestors, a true ghost story from the island, and tales about hurricanes.  Lots of fun.  Patti even got to be interviewed for a videoblog by another storyteller, who it turns out Patti is FACEBOOK friends with.  What a small world.