It’s probably one of the most famous roads on Edisto Island: a sand lane that runs under a canopy of Live Oaks, looking positively like something out of Gone With the Wind.
Botany Bay Wildlife Management area is actually made up of three plantations: Bleak Hall, Botany Bay, and Sea Cloud. All three grew sea island cotton, which has particularly long fibers and was used in France for high quality lace.
This morning, we’re going on a botany tour — appropriate, given the name of the site. One other family is joining us.
We walk among the marshes, stopping every few moments to learn a bit more about the island.
Along the way, one young lady catches a fiddler crab.
L gets her own:
We learn about the importance of the marshes as a protective barrier for hurricanes: they act as sponges and thus do much to minimize the effect of higher tides from hurricanes.
We find out that the English came to Edisto in search of riches and found a treasure in the huge Live Oaks on the island.
We learn that the use of palms in South Carolina naval fortifications were literally so effective at dissipating energy that canon balls essentially bounced off them.
We arrive at the beach, where our guide, Meg, gave us more information on loggerhead turtles and residents’ effort to help them.
It’s about the third time we’ve heard about loggerheads and the nest relocation activities of the Edistoians. They’re obviously proud of it, and rightly so: it takes a great deal of dedication among many people to keep the program going.
Meg shows us a loggerhead skull, and it’s immediately obvious how huge the turtles are. The females drag their bodies out of the water to dig a nest, and often enough, they don’t get beyond the high tide line.
The incoming tide destroys the nests; volunteers on the island, though, head out nightly and relocate the nests. Then the hatchlings only have to worry about birds and raccoons as they make their way to the surf.
After Meg leaves, we explore the beach a bit on our own, and what a beach it is — like something from a tourist brochure. In fact, it is.
The ocean is slowly reclaiming this portion of the shore. It creeps inward at a relatively steady pace, turning everything into beach, and hence killing all the flora that cannot handle an intensely salty environment.
K takes the camera and goes for a picture walk;
I stay with the Girl, hoping to talk her into the ocean,
unsuccessfully.