Cumberland Island

Next stop was Cumberland Island.   We had an awful trip from St Augustine to St Mary’s Inlet.  It rained and was cold. It was not forecasted to rain and was a most unpleasant surprise.   However the next day was beautiful and we explored Cumberland Island and it was worth it.   A great place.  Only down side was the water was brown.  Not milky but the color of strong tea or weak coffee.   Such a shock after being in clean beautiful water for 2 years.   The current was very strong and the boat faced many directions during our 2 night stay.  A whole new world was before us having not stayed in Georgia prior.

Oh My!   The brown water.  Kirk said it was from the cypress trees.

Boat house on top of boat lift.    You can see the tidal change on the poles.   This also was something new as we have not really dealt with tidal change in 2 years.

The river path to the mansion.  It was fabulous!

I think these were buzzards.  They were big birds for sure.

Pretty majestic in flight

Love those shady walks.   This tree lined "road" reminded me of Kirk's family "ranch" driveway.

The entrance to the mansion

The mansion ruins from the front.   oh my so sad.

This is Donna in heaven.

This is why. 

 I got to observe a group of wild horses for about 40 minutes before any other tourists showed up.   Watching the interactions between the mares, youngsters, this colt and the stallion was fascinating to me.

The setting was not bad either.   This is the back of the mansion facing the water.  You can see the little colt on the left.  He got up from his nap, found his mama, had a snack and then took another nap.  Kirk let me be and went on and adventure and I then watched the horses interact with the tourists that had arrived.  

Most of the foundations, walls, steps, etc. were made of oyster shell.  Some had a concrete face.  Kirk was amazed at the tree that had grown out of this foundation.

The spanish moss!!!

The trail to the beach.   There were camping sites off of this trail.   It was so good to smell campfires!!

We saw this guy on the beach.   Thought he was quite funny looking.   Later we found out he is a cannon ball jelly fish.   

One of my favorite things is walking on the beach.

   I definitely felt peace with the horses and the beach.  

This place was a jewel.   You can only get there by boat. There is a ferry a couple times a day.  There is water along the trail to the beach for the camp sites along with bath houses.   It is Cumberland Island in Georgia.   Google it, you will be amazed at what you find out.  I hope we can come here again and stay for a while as we did not get to explore as much as we wanted.