Cumberland Island

The plan for the next 2 days was to catch the ferry to Cumberland Island in Georgia and camp overnight but we both seriously considered taking the ferry back the same day because a cold front moved through and we awoke to a cold and windy day with wind chills in the 30s! However, we aren’t ones to shy away from a bit of nasty weather so we bundled up (thank goodness Jess had provided me with a winter coat!) and trudged onto the ferry. The ferry is a walk on, passenger only ferry. The ride over to Cumberland is about 40 minutes and upon arrival we had to unload all of our gear and go to a short orientation about camping. Basically keep all your food locked up and don’t ride the wild horses. 

To get to the campground you then have to haul your gear about a half mile into the island. The campground is very small and quite dense with foliage so you can’t see any other campers and the sites are huge so I was quite impressed. Thank goodness for all the trees because they helped block the wind. 

The best way to see the island is on bikes so we rented some and headed down to Dungeness Ruins. On the ride there we got to see our first wild horse! 

 

Dungeness is a ruined mansion that is part of a historic district that was the home of several families significant in American history including: James Oglethorpe, Nathanael Greene, Henry Lee III and Thomas M. Carnegie. In 1959 the Dungeness mansion was destroyed by fire and its hard to fathom what it looked like in its original grandeur because the ruins are so huge. 

 

Other Carnegie estates were built for his children, including Plum Orchard which is a 20,000 square foot, Georgian Revival mansion. It is almost 8 miles from the Sea Camp dock to visit Plum Orchard and it’s a hell of a bike ride. The road is sandy and for the most part it is packed but there are some parts where you get bogged down. Jess was not feeling the bike ride and towards the end I was ready to forget about reaching the mansion too but we trudged on. 

What was infuriating was that NPS vehicles kept driving by us on the road. Why can’t you shuttle people to Plum Orchard National Park Service!!? 

Smiling through the pain

One bright spot was seeing the armadillos that were everywhere along the road. For some reason I find them really adorable! Maybe it's because Jess says Vin Diesel looks like an armadillo :)

We finally arrived and the mansion wasn’t even open so we just walked around the exterior, checked out some wild horses and rested on the grand porch.

 

Finally we forced ourselves to get back on the bikes and slog all the way back to camp where we wearily cooked dinner. Fortunately Jess had brought tea so we heated up some water and were able to warm ourselves with a cup of tea that we enjoyed on the beach as the sun was setting.

Brrrr