I certainly think that it is a different feeling being in the water with the dolphins than watching it on from a boat or shore. Actually physically sharing space with any large animal is always a bit of a humbling experience. Plus in the water, where man is clearly not the dominant animal, it’s such a rush in those first moments when the dorsal fin first pops up out of nowhere nearby in the water (and any of our astute readers will know that a certain dark dorsal fin breaking the water is one the most primeval fears of mine), but also being in the water with these graceful and powerful creatures makes one feel like such a clumsy guest in their territory. This brief encouter was such a nice way to end our stay.
We packed up our hotel belonging and loaded them in the minivan. I swear we had brought nearly 400 pounds of stuff. Not sure what all was in there. We then drove out to the kayaking launch site.
JPD and I went out in a tandem kayak. Sorry there are no pictures. After our last digital camera gave up the ghost mid-way thru a canoeing trip, I am leery of bringing the camera unless I can waterproof it well. Our guide’s full time job was as a history professor at U. South Carolina-Beaufort, so he gave us lots of interesting history tidbits. One of the first things we paddled out to was the wreckage of an old dock that had burned with a large abandoned catamaran sailing ship (the starting point of the fire). JPD and I actually paddled underneath it, it was a bit of a tight fit for my head. After leaving there, we paddled to the shrimp boat docks and our guide told us that all the shrimp boat scenes from the movie Forrest Gump were actually shot around here. (Apparently the Viet Nam scenes were shot a little farther in, and of course the Savannah Georgia scenes were shot nearby at Savannah.)
We then starting see dolphins across the channel near the Pickney Island side, so we started to cross the channel, but in the meantime, we stopped at one of buoys floating in the channel. Our guide then pulled up a crab trap which contained a couple of blue crabs and a large stone crab. (Maybe a foot in diameter.)Our guide told us that it was common practice to remove the large claw of the stone crab for food and then return it back to the wild, because it would then regenerate its claw, thus making a "vegetarian" crab dinner, as no animals had been killed. (I'm sure that some vegans would object to that definition.)
We then continued in our pursuit of the dolphins, but they moved off and we never got really close. So we headed into one of the creeks of Pickney Island and ended up bushwacking kayaking style through a lot of sawgrass in creek/marsh to get over to a shell road that was our only portage. Here we received another history lesson. Turns out that Pickney Island was originally owned by Charles Pickney, signer of the declaration of independence. Originally they raised European cattle, as it turned out these bovine refuse to cross salt water, so they would stay on the island rather than swim across to greener pastures. They could also live off the bountiful sawgrass and the Spanish moss on the palmetto trees. All of the cattle were shipped to the Carribean to feed slaves. After cattle was no longer as profitable, the island became an indigo plantation, as the British Navy had a huge demand for indigo to dye their uniforms. Then came the Revolutionary War and for some reason the British Navy no longer wanted South Carolina indigo. At that point, the island switched to cotton. Eventually the island was abandoned and then finally became a natural wildlife reserve.
After that little history lesson, we hopped back in our boats on the other side of the road and explored the marsh a bit. Mostly because of the low tide, we were bushwacking through the sawgrass again. Coming off the island we saw some large birds, but I have to admit I still can't tell the difference between a egret, an ibis, or wood stork at a distance, even though our guide tried to talk me thru a verbal dichotomous key. We did sneak up on a blue heron, which I was able to ID easily from a distance thanks to their abundance in TN. Then we paddled back across the channel to our dock and we were through.
I think JPD was getting the hang of paddling the kayak by the end and we were able to move pretty quickly. It certainly seems easier to keep a sea kayak tracking where you want to go than a canoe, but its a lot easy to accidentally have your paddles clash.
Sidenote: I felt really bad that we didn't tip our guide. He was friendly and interesting and he apparently was a fill-in for the regular guide. But I hadn't brought any extra cash besides the $50 for the kayaking trip, and I absolutely hate when you find out that tipping is expected (there was a sign at the kayak shack) but you are not prepared for it. (There was no mention on the web-site.) I don't know if its standard practice to tip your captain or guide on paying trips or not, I have never really understood why tipping is expected in some settings and not others. After all, you don't tip at fast food restaurants, but the people there do pretty much as much work as at most fancier restaurants. Requiring employees to make their wages off tipping seems like an underhanded way for business owners to cheat their employees and falsely advertize the actual cost of something. I know that some wait staff make out like gangbusters, and in theory (but not practice) it encourages service employees to be helpful, but it seems to me that if a place offers a service for a price, the entire price should be put upfront and the people who do the actual work should be guaranteed to be compensated from that instead of being at the mercy of the customers. My friend DF tells me there is no tipping in Japan and I think that actually ends up creating a better service and work environment. But enough on that.
AMD and the girls picked us up and we started the long drive home. We had originally planned on staying in Atlanta overnight at our friends home, but we just felt vacationed out. I admit I was starting to feel kind of sick again and the kids were getting on each other nerves, and it just felt like it would be best if we got back home and kind of got back to our normal routine. So we drove home and all slept soundly. (In my case, I pretty much slept all of Sunday since my cold finally hit with full force.)
