The Dead Surrounded by the Living
This past weekend, my coworker was nice enough to drive me out to Bull's Island.
Everyone who knows me knows: I am bad at driving. I hate driving.
So I haven't had much of a chance to get out and look around Charleston. When my coworker (who is a German international) offered to take me, I immediately said yes.
I really did not expect much. My only experiences with the Carolinas' beaches were that the water was murky and sandy, and that the waves were way too strong for me to enjoy.
Bull's Island was absolutely beautiful.
Sure, the water wasn't as clear as the Bahamas and the sand wasn't as pristine white as Florida, but there was a certain charm I really appreciated about the small island.
So we got to the docks early in the morning to catch the ferry ride to the island. Much of the environment out in the coast is protected by the government, so the area around Bull's Island was supposedly touched very little by mankind. It's supposed to be very similar to the same view that the Native Americans saw way back when.
This was the view from the ferry. Almost 360 degrees of this beautiful view.
Once we landed, we headed straight to the beach which was about a 1.5 mile trail.
The weather was SUPER perfect that day. A little chilly, but the sun was out and we were walking all day. Thankfully, there were no bugs. I can only imagine the hell I would have to go through if I came in the summer.
We walked the beach until we got to the Boneyard. It's called the Boneyard because gradually, the waves crawled up to the shores and there are a lot of dead (?) trees in that corner of the island.
The guys were looking forward to seeing some alligators on the island, but me, not so much. In my past trip to Korea, I went to a zoo for the first time in like 14 years (!!!). When we got to the reptile section, what I'm guessing was a crocodile immediately jumped out of the water and clamped his mouth so violently. Luckily, there was a glass wall. Even so, my sister and I jumped back immediately, but my aunt screamed and threw all of her stuff everywhere. Will blog about this in my Korea series.
Anyways. So obviously, I was very nervous about actually seeing alligators. However, our ferry guide told us that Alligators don't necessarily bother humans unless the humans bother them. Alligators have to swallow their prey whole, whilst crocodiles can chew.
We wandered around a couple of trails until we came upon this:
No fence. No trusty crocodile-hunter-man-protector. No nothing.
There were probably around 40 of them that we saw. However, once you get close to them, a lot of them run back into the water because they are afraid of humans.
Now mind you, I am a very cautious person. A scaredy-cat. My entire life revolves around me being scared for my life. This was probably the craziest thing I've ever done.
Luckily, the alligators didn't think they could swallow me whole, and we passed the half mile path to get to the main trail.
We couldn't stop by on the way to the island and there was no food on the island, so we took a break to eat some of the snacks that I had packed. We wandered around the island some more before heading back to the docks in the late afternoon.
We were so tired that except for the driver, the other coworker and I passed out in the car. We were also really hungry because we had only had a couple of granola bars and chips all day, so we headed out for a steak dinner at 4PM.
I really can't express how thankful I am for my coworker for taking me. I'm not brave enough to venture out into city roads and highways by myself, so I was very lucky to have him driving for me. I'm also a super introvert, so I have a hard time making friends unless I'm in a forced situation. I was really beginning to wonder if I would make friends here at all, but I think I'll be okay for at least this semester.
I'll end with a picture of a really pretty shell I found:
But these were everywhere, so it's probably just me that thinks they're fascinating.
Once again,
Thanks for reading,
Becca.
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