Sapelo Island, Part III

I know today is Thursday but I'm really anxious to get the last of my Sapelo pictures up so I can begin the sprawling series of posts that will cover Savannah!

I'll begin with the evening of our second day and move into the last day and the ferry trip back to the mainland.

After the morning trip to explore the southern end of the island, we rested up a bit and set back out in the late afternoon.  Rather than taking the bikes we chose to walk because somebody (as in, NOT me) was too sore and tired to ride.  So we walked.  Okay, fine by me, I walk all the time.  In fact, it has become blatantly obvious to me that my definition of "walking distance" comes nowhere near a normal person's definition.  Five miles and under = walking distance in my mind.  

Anyway.  So we set out to explore more of the northern and the western part of the island.  We started out and the first thing we came upon was this scene:

 

What you don't see is that there were probably eight more in the trees around the area.  Should we have taken this as a sign?  I dunno.  I took it as another chance to see wildlife up close!  These are black vultures as opposed to turkey vultures, which have the red head.  Their defense mechanism is to vomit when approached by a threat.  Charming.  Fortunately they didn't see us as threatening and everyone went their merry way.

We covered probably around 10 miles that evening but the island is beautiful and peaceful so it was really nice and relaxing.

The road above is actually one of the main roads on the island!  I was completely enjoying the ability to take my flip flops off and walk barefoot through the soft sand...until I was reminded that I could contract hookworms by walking around barefoot, especially in an area with so many wild cattle.  Sigh.  

Supposedly Sapelo has a bioluminescent pond.  I say supposedly because I think Nick is the only person who has ever heard of this.  He claims to have seen it when he went there in college however I've never seen or heard any other indication that this exists.  Nothing online.  Nothing in any of the research I've seen regarding bioluminescent bodies of water.  But we did find this, which could be a strong contender for the elusive pond.  I have done nothing to change the color...this is what the water looked like.  The thing is, it wasn't gross algae like you normally see in ponds.  The water was still relatively clear with a green tint which makes me think it could be something that would bioluminess.

The pond again.

We had totally decided to ride back over at night to see if it was the pond until...  We turn to walk the remaining mile (or less) to our rental house and I stop dead in my tracks.  Up ahead, off to the side of the road, was that giant black bull.  At first we decide to keep going and hope that, like most cows (but this isn't a cow!) that he'll just chill out and let us by.  Except every time we started moving forward this happened:

He would turn onto the road and start coming towards us.  Of course I'm speed walking the other direction but still trying to stop and take pictures.  I thought this bull wanted to destroy us but our host, Gibb, said that he's actually fairly friendly and was probably just looking for food.  Okay, Gibb...that info would have been helpful to know ahead of time.  Before we diverted our route home by an extra couple of miles!  I'm still not sure I buy it...

The last morning included an early bike ride before heading back.  Caught this guy out of the corner of my eye in a temporary canal on the side of the road as I went by.  I almost missed him but I've become quite skilled at spotting alligators-but I have a history there!  It's clear that the animals here have minimal contact with people.  This guy didn't flinch at me coming up to the bank and I could have totally jumped in and grabbed it (he was only about 3 or so feet)!

A few final random pictures from around the island:

Then, sadly, it was time to leave.  Here are some final views as we headed back on the ferry.

Apparently I have no idea when I'm getting my picture taken!  I get made fun of for staring into the water, which I do a lot.  But this case was more a matter of taking in the final views of this amazing place.

There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it.

~ Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin