Virginia - North Carolina: Saturday, November 5, 2022 | |
Today, it is Cape Lookout. | |
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Walking around Cape Hatteras was such a treat, that we had to hike Cape Lookout. Getting to Cape Lookout, however, is a little bit trickier. We had to drive to Harkers Island, an Outer Banks island separating Back Sound from Core Sound. There is a bridge for that crossing.
On the far end of Harkers Island is the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center. From there we had to take a passenger ferry about 8 miles to Cape Lookout Lighthouse on the outer most barrier island. This isn’t a North Carolina Ferry, it is a privately operated ferry, which, when translated, means expensive ($23 roundtrip). The lighthouse is still 5 miles from the Cape.
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A Mexican food truck greeted us at the visitor center parking lot. Sadly, it was closed for the season. | Paintings of the lighthouse in the visitor center. I realize that the lighthouse is the icon symbol of the Cape, however, it is the Cape itself that is the real star of the show. | Our ferry was a glorified pontoon boat with twin 300 hp Yamahas. | As we passed Shacklefort Banks, the island that runs perpendicular to Cape Lookout island, we spotted two of the wild horses that live on the island. The island is un-inhabited and the herd is protected. Volunteer veterinarians keep an eye on the horses. Sick horses are removed, fixed up, but not returned to the island. They are adopted out elsewhere to make sure no diseases are reintroduced into the herd. | Landing at the lighthouse. | There is a nature trail that weaves around the lighthouse and the light-keepers houses. With the lighthouse on the leeward side of the sand spit, some vegetation has gotten a foothold. | |
At the lighthouse, we had the option of walking to the Cape, a 10 mile round trip; renting an ATV for $250 a day, yikes; or hop on the shuttle, which was nothing more than riding in the back of a pickup truck for $13 a roundtrip. We took the shuttle.
There is a car ferry farther up the island, however, since there aren’t any roads you need one of those Off-Road-Vehicle permits. With all the deep sand, you surely need 4-wheel drive.
| Our $13 luxurious beach shuttle. | Cars with the ORV permits can ride a car ferry farther up the barrier island. It is a long drive down a very sandy path to reach the Cape. |  | |
It was extremely low-tide when we hit the Cape. The vastness of the sand was even more vast with the tide-water receded so much. People, including us, frolicked in the shallow pools of water that, in a few hours, will be too deep and dangerous to even go near. Some brave souls drove out to some of these newly exposed sand banks. They had better keep a close eye on the tide as it comes back in, lest the sea swallows up their vehicles.
The low-tide made ‘shelling’ more productive and fun. We were still looking for our Scotch Bonnet. Again, there were plenty of broken pieces, but no intact Bonnets. We did snag several pockets full of pristine orange, red, purple, white, black, smooth, serrated, ribbed, striped, splotchy, and/or polka-dotted shell specimens.
The weather was as crazy as we have come to expect. We had full sun, dark overcast, a quick rain shower, more sun, several black cells just missing us, etc. Even with this variability, the temperature stayed warm. The Cape is vast. In spite of wimping out and taking the shuttle ride, we logged well over 5 miles of walking.
The Cape Lookout National Seashore consists of a long string of barrier islands running northeast, like a string of pearls all the way to Ocracoke Island, where the next string of islands, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, takes over. The two most substantial islands of Cape Lookout sit perpendicular to each other at the southern tip. We could have toured both of these island for twice the price for the double ferry ride. The second island is famed for having wild horses running loose. We saw a couple of the wild horses from the ferry. They were OK, but I wanted to spend my time right on the Cape, and that meant only one island, the island we went to.
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’Shelling’ at the Cape. Some people take ‘shelling’ very seriously. They bring out carts and buckets. They even have special long-handled scoops so they don’t have to bend down.
Hmm, I could use a shave.
| Barefoot is the only way to walk these beaches. | The return trip to the mainland. | On the way back to camp, we drove through tidewater towns like Beaufort, Morehead City, Otway and the like. This huge eastern tidewater seaboard has a flavor that is subtle but distinctive. It is maritime, but not touristy. The people are working-class and modest. The towns are laid-back, down-to-earth, and solid. The beauty didn’t overwhelm, it was just there. The ever-present water, swamps, wide rivers, Sounds, sand, moss-ladened trees, cotton fields, houses on stilts, fishing marinas, and the like, presented a way of life that, again, wasn’t fancy, just solid. We felt content and comfortable. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
