The North Carolina Trip

A few months back, I was fortunate to be invited to join a couple of ladies plus a Bengal Cat named Leo on a camping trip that would take us up to the famous Blue Ridge mountains in North Carolina. Sharing the driving with Pat, we slogged right up through Florida and met up with Heather who had come across from Sarasota. The first stop was the Okeefenokee Swamp where we settled in and were promptly deluged with two inches of rain. Considering it was the first time that I had put the tent up without Jean, I was fairly proud of myself and with two of us under canvas and one in the camper van, we all managed excellently. Driving up through the centre of Georgia was a wonderful chance to see beautiful little towns like Madison. Since the speed limit in Georgia is 45mph, you get plenty of chance to admire the passing scenery, but we were a bit horrified to find that at the end of a long days drive, it was impossible to buy wine on a Sunday! Thank heavens Pat discovered a spare bottle at the bottom of a cupboard in the van. Staying over at Vogel State Park was scenic but distinctly chilly and we found a thrift shop and bought up their stock of blankets. Well worth it however to be back in the mountains and Heather introduced hot chocolate into the diet before we retired for the night which really helped. From Vogel we moved into North Carolina and joined the Blue Ridge Parkway at Cherokee, following it along the tops of the mountains until we reached Ashville. Two more nights spent in a delightfully wooded campground by a bubbling trout stream and we investigated the delights of the Biltmore Village where the shopping is highly expensive but incredibly beautiful. A day spent in and around Ashville and we were ready to head back to the hills and stopped off at Linville Falls for two nights. This was our last view of the mountains and we slid down in the early morning mist and drove through South Carolina to Savannah. What a lovely Sunday. We took the tourist trip and visited all the squares, sat on the bench where Forest Gump offered the lady his chocolates, saw the house from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and wound up in the campground with a great bunch of South Africans who were having their annual get-together. In true SA spirit, they sent us off with a big bag of boerewors and a packet of charcoal having shared their seafood poitjie with us. From Savannah we called in at St Augustine and duly walked along the oldest road in America before heading down to spend our last night in blissful luxury with friends of Heathers who had a beach house. It was great to get back home but we are already talking about our next trip. Just as long as Leo comes along with us!