Day 46 – Another good day! We were both up by 7:30 this morning; it was cloudy & 46 degrees. The weather forecast had been for several days of rain in a row. That had changed this morning & we were looking at another day of exploring.
We packed our lunch & drove first back to Bear Island Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Hooked on alligators, yeah we are. We drove beyond the WMA to see where the road went; the map showed it ending fairly soon. We ended up at the teeny town of Bennett’s Point. The road curved around & the paved road ended at a nice housing development with houses on the river. There was a volunteer fire department building. A couple of mansions were on the marsh off another dirt road. Otherwise, it was a quaint old southern town with a couple of small farms, with horses & fields for various crops, not yet planted. A boat storage place, a few trailers on lots, and a row of mail boxes, maybe 20 boxes, showed that the postal route ended there. We turned around & drove into Bear Island WMA, pulled over & had our lunch.
We saw a few birds that allowed themselves to be photographed, and about halfway through, happily, several young, small alligators who jumped off the mud banks as we drove up & thought they were hiding in the water of the marsh. We also saw the adult alligator at the place we saw him/her yesterday.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
Driving on, we found ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a prescribed burn (or controlled burn as they call it at the wildlife refuges). The wildlife disappeared. I wonder why?!
We saw no other vehicles until near the end when people raced by, presumably escaping the fire, ha ha. Usually when they are having a burn, they have warning signs up, but we had seen none.
Prescribed burn, Bear Island WMA, ACE Basin, SC
Prescribed burn, Bear Island WMA, ACE Basin, SC
Prescribed burn, Bear Island WMA, ACE Basin, SC
Coughing at the dense smoke, we left Bear Island & drove to Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, which was on an unpaved road on the way back to the main highway. Donnelley WMA was a nice drive. They also had a few mild fires simmering. Is Tuesday the day for prescribed burning? On the way out, we stopped at a kiosk & picked up maps. We wished we’d had them when we entered the WMA because we missed some of the key places. We will come back.
Donnelley WMA, ACE Basin, SC
Donnelley WMA, ACE Basin, SC
On the way back towards Edisto Beach State Park, we turned off on the road to Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Most of this entire area is located within ACE Basin, including Bear Island WMA, Donnelly WMA, Botany Bay Plantation Preserve, and Edisto Beach State Park, etc. When we attempted to go to the NWR in 2017, it was closed. We wanted to go to the Visitor’s Center to get maps & a history of the area. Driving along these roads, lined with Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss hanging down, we felt like we were in a different time & place.
As we approached the Visitor’s Center and office of the NWR, we were amazed by the long road with the trees, ending at the old plantation building. Unfortunately, the office was closed, but we took pictures of the area anyway. When we got back to the State Park, Rob stopped to ask the Ranger what the hours were for the NWR. She said they only have two employees & when they need to go out into the (large) field, they have to close the office, and to try earlier in the day. Sounds reasonable, we’ll try that tomorrow, weather permitting.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
We got back to the RV at 4:30 p.m. The high today was 70 degrees. The sun came out and went behind the clouds on & off thoughout the day. We opened our wine & beer and kicked back. As said before, it was a good day!
Glad u r back on road & writing & pic taking. What is status on knee? Different way of doing things? PT in the RV? How much use walker & cane? Sponsored blog writing-how much do you get paid from the sponsors? I could do one on cooking-curious to know the payment arrangements.
Glad u r back , Dan Bain, gayle’s Friend from COSTCO
Hi Dan, See Wednesday, February 27, 2019 for a description of how Vicki’s knee is doing. As far as monetizing the blog, we aren’t actually getting any money for the sponsored links that show up when you look at the blog. We are just using the free wordpress.com blog plan, that allows us to have a simple blog for free, if we allow WordPress to stick in some ads.
Thanks for bringing these little signs of spring to you friends in snowy NYS.