South Carolina

21 May –

We followed the directions of the camp staff into the city of Charleston about 10 miles away and found easy parking on the waterfront. Charleston is a harbour city on the Cooper and Ashley Rivers. We walked along the waterfront marvelling at the magnificent houses. These were built before the Civil War and are huge with many balconies and roman columns. This must have been a
very rich town with the plantation owners and the traders. There are hundreds of these houses stretching many streets away from the waterfront. There are even older houses painted in rainbow pastel colours closer to the old town. We wandered thru the markets and stopped for lunch at “Bubba Gump”.
This is a chain of restaurant specialising in (you guessed) shrimps. The place is themed as Forrest Gump and the shrimps were great. Back along the waterfront and parks to “Ernie”. A great day!

22 May – We drove back thru Charleston and across a huge single span suspension bridge over the

harbour and thru the northern suburbs. Lots of trees and shrubs line the streets and we have decided that this is a lovely city. Others must have thought the some of the first battles in the War of Independence and the Civil War were fought here. Only a short drive to our camp in the Francis Marion National Forest beside the Inter-coastal Waterway. This is a series of natural and man made channels which run from Key West to Boston (2000 miles) allowing small craft to travel safely up the east coast.

23 May –

We turn inland as our plan is to loop thru the interior of South Carolina. We will return to the coast later. It was a great drive on country roads thru the Francis Marion Forest around Lake Marion to the Santee State Park on the shores of the lake. We rode a 7 mile bike track along the lake shore and back to “Ernie”. My bike developed a “loose pedal” which we fixed. It was a good time to do a bit of bike maintenance. In the evening a cool wind came off the lake so we went inside for dinner.

24 May –

It was a beautiful morning as the cool wind had dropped in the night. We continued on inland and stopped at the small Congaree National Park. This National Park is the last remaining area of
hardwood floodplain forest. The brown meandering Congaree River floods every year putting the forest underwater and replenishing the ecosystem. Surprisingly huge trees (Loblolly Pines and Cypress) flourish in this swampy environment. We watched the usual video giving us an understanding of the forest and then walked a long (2.4 mile) boardwalk thru the unique forest. It was well worth the detour into this National Park. Back on the road for a slow trip (accidents, roadworks and detours) to a State Park on the outskirts of Columbia where we got a great site. As the night was warm and we found some firewood, lit a camp fire and toasted s’mores.

25 May –

We have decided this will be “Ernie’s Day”. Our Head of Communications (Val) researched places to get an oil filter change and tyre pressures checked, and get the chip in the windscreen fixed. A bonus would be if we could wash “Ernie”. Things never go quite as planned starting with the place we had booked for an oil change. Despite assuring us on the phone that they would do the job as we waited on arrival they said it would several hours. We then got the run around by several people until finding a great oil change place that did the job straight away. The windscreen people were booked for 2:00pm so we had lunch thinking we could be on the road by 3:00pm. Wrong again! The chip was not a repair but a new windscreen. Thank god we had it insured. Unfortunately they did not have the windscreen so it could not be done until tomorrow. We drove back to our nice camp for another night. We are under huge Loblolly Pines. These are very tall straight trees used for ships masts.

26 May –

Back to the windscreen place where they took 2 hours to do the job. We went for a walk in the historic district of the town to fill in time. Eventually we were on the road again for a 2 hour drive to a State Park near the South/North Carolina border. Poor old “Ernie” is still waiting for that wash.  Perhaps next week!

27 May –

This is Friday of Memorial Weekend, the traditional start of the camping season, so we had to book a State Park very early on in our trip for this time. We shopped and continued over the North/South Carolina border to Jones Lake State Park. This is quite a different state park with only a few (20) sites which have no electricity or water. We had a great site with a nice mix of sun and shade.  The weather forecast for the long weekend is not good with a tropical storm forming near Charleston. We rode down to the lake where there is a small sandy beach. The swimming was great in the tea coloured water.

Decided we better have a camp fire as who knows what it will be like tomorrow. Cooked cranskies, corn, onions, and bread rolls over the fire with s’mores to follow. This is another alcohol free camp but we are getting used to drink whiskey out of our plastic picnic cups!

28 May –

Pancakes for breakfast and then a 4 mile walk around the lake. Saw some fresh bear scat but no signs of the bear. The weather feels very hot as the humidity is high so back to the beach for a swim and a cool off. Had to beat a hasty retreat back to “Ernie” as it started to rain. The rain stopped so after dinner we went to the Visitors Centre for an extended episode of “Animal Plant” with David Attenborough. Very educational!

29 May –

It rained off and on all night so were up a couple of times opening and closing windows and vents. We put the awning up and sat outside after breakfast in the rain. Still very humid. The place emptied out as most families in tents got sick of the rain and went home. We went for a short walk to the fishing pier between showers and then spent the rest of the afternoon going inside and out depending on the rain. It cleared around dinner time so we grabbed the wood left behind by our neighbours and try to light a fire with little success.

30 May –

No rain in the night so we could keep the vents and windows open and get a good night’s sleep in the cool. We were due to leave this camp and go down to Myrtle Beach State Park but were a little concerned as the tropical storm (now downgraded to a depression) had moved north to Myrtle Beach. Decided to move on as we were still getting the odd shower any way. On the 90 mile drive back into South Carolina and the coast we passed huge long queues of traffic going the other way after their weekend. Myrtle Beach is a holiday destination with many hotels and amusement parks. The State Park is out of this area and on a great beach. Our plan is to stay here for 5 nights and enjoy the beach etc. When we arrived the weather had cleared (good decision) and we walked the beach. The surf was pounding in but lots of people were swimming. Hopefully now that the storm has got further north the surf will settle down tomorrow. We have a lovely site and looking forward to our time here.

31 May –

An overcast day with a forecast of tropical rain in the afternoon. After Val had done the laundry we biked around the State Park and discovered a cycleway into the town. We will explore that later. Managed to have lunch outside but we soon driven inside by heavy rain. We had a lightning flash and immediately the biggest explosion we have ever heard!  The lightning must have been right overhead. The rain stopped so we walked the camp and after dinner along the beach to the fishing pier where people were getting excited catching small sharks.

1 June –

An overcast morning with more rain forecast for the afternoon. We rode the cycleway into the Myrtle Beach town. The only shops appeared to be selling beach stuff. We rode down to the hotels and apartments, an area very much like Surfers Paradise. By now the sun had come out and there were lots of people on the beach in front of the hotels. We spied a restaurant on the beach that would be good to visit. After lunch the forecast tropical rain did not arrive so we spent a great afternoon enjoying our lovely beach. In the evening we walked the beach towards the town and found the restaurant which we hopefully dine at tomorrow.

2 June –

At last a sunny morning with a good forecast. Down to the beach before lunch and back in the heat of the day. Our intention was to go back to the beach after lunch but it clouded over and the thunder rumbled all afternoon. We spent some time planning the next bit of our trip thru North Carolina and into Virginia. Eventually we went to the beach but settled for a sit and a read returning as some spots of rain fell. Decided not to walk to the restaurant for dinner as there are still a few thunder storms around.

3 June –

Down to the beach early (for us) as the forecast in the afternoon is for more showers. We had some great swims in the surf and walked back to “Ernie” for lunch. The weather was clear with no clouds
so we headed back to the beach for another session of sun and surf. A beautiful evening so we set off for the walk along the beach to the restaurant. The tide was high so we had to divert around a stream flowing across the beach that would have got our good duds wet. We had a great meal sitting outside with the beach and the Atlantic Ocean as our view. We both had steaks and Key Lime Pie to follow. It was dark as we walked home so we were careful not to step on any turtles going to nest in the sand dunes. Easy as we did not see any!

4 June –

We have had a great 5 days in Myrtle Beach. Back on the road thru the tourist bits of Myrtle Beach and back over the South/North Carolina border to Carolina Beach. It was Saturday and we were hopeful for a site at the State Park but it was full so we settled for an old camping ground just down the road. It had internet and a laundry. Val did a wash and we spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to sort out a problem with downloading books into our e-readers. No luck! There was a nice pool so we got rid of our frustrations with a swim. Hopefully we can publish this blog.