Southeast 2

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 There's no way we're going to keep sending so many email blogs. We're just catching up...

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OBX = Outer Banks

We hike out of Assateague and keep driving South, crossing the Chesapeake Bay. Our next destination is False Cape State Park. The approach is longer and not very sexy: we hike one mile along the asphalt road to the Wilderness visitor center and then 3.5 miles on the beach to the campsites.

Walking on the beach is quite monotonous but the campsites are under a thick canopy of oak trees. Pretty!

We test some of our dehydrated foods (beans, peas, refried beans, eggs, couscous...). Not a full success but not too bad for a first experience! And hungry bellies aren't picky!



In the morning Joao makes the quick hike to the beach and finds several tracks on the sand on his way: coyote, raccoon and probably a bobcat too. The best surprise is at the beach tough: dolphins are out!

Today is Muriel's 49th birthday. No cake though just refried beans and eggs for breakfast! And THE song from Joao and Jeremy choir!

For our return, we try to avoid the monotonous hike back on the beach and start on the inland trails. It's a nice change of scenery from the beach trail through forests and marshes. We know those trails are closed for the season but we can't help give it a try... To no avail: a ranger finds us and kindly drives us back. We still got a good scenic hike inland but here we are, back on the beach again! All in all this cost us 2 extra miles of hike, 7 in total.

Hiking back to the car we pass by 2 poisonous snakes warming up in the sun. They looked like the infamous cottonmouth !

The temperature really got higher: we're at 70F now!!! It was in the upper 30sF yesterday with wind!!! Muriel's sheds layers!

Back to the car we take our time to pack and start driving to the OBX.

After a quick visit of the Kitty Hawk Wright Brothers first historic flight memorial for aviation passionate Muriel, we keep driving south along the narrow OBX stretch of dunes between the Atlantic and the shallow bay towards the towns Joao knows quite well from his previous windsurfing trips here (Salvo, Wave, Avon).

After two nights in primitive  campsites, it's time for good showers  so we treat ourselves to a nice little double room at Hatteras. And we continue to experiment with our dehydrated travel food. Jeremy is cooperating quite well with the questionable menus for a teen.

Friday already and the weather has so far blessed us. We catch an early ferry to Ocracoke Island. Off season this entire trip feels so much more authentic.While the coast is crazy packed with beach crowds in summer, now there's only a few cars on the ferry, which makes a long detour due to shallow waters. The Ocracoke Island also is deserted of tourists crowds, there's just the 1000 permanent locals and a few off-season travellers like us. It's a treat!

Joao, who's been there before, plays guide and tours us around through the quaint little colorful village and little woods of centenary twisted oak trees by the beach.

We lazy around until it's time for the ferry crossing southward to Cedar Island. This time the navigation takes more than 2 hours.

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