Thursday, September 16, 2010
Camelot RV Park, Wilmington, NC - May 10-12
This was an expensive but very nice private RV park, located right in town. It still managed to have a quiet, relaxed atmosphere, with lots of shade & even a pair of nesting Broad-winged hawks with two chicks. Unfortunately, we had a lot of sightseeing to get in for the two days, so we didn't get to relax much. We toured the beach towns of Carolina Beach & Kure Beach, walking along & in the Atlantic Ocean. We also stopped to hike the Flytrap Trail at Carolina Beach SP but were disappointed to see no Venus' Flytraps, which are native only to the Wilmington area. We hiked the short trail twice, examining the ground closely with our binocs to make sure we hadn't missed anything! We did see a few Sundews, which are relatives of Flytraps.
The next day we spent visiting two lighthouses located on this part of the coast. We first took a ferry to Bald Head Island, a true island retreat, as there are no cars on the island & you can only get here by ferry. When you rent a place here, it comes with a golf cart for transportation. We walked around & saw Old Baldy, NC's oldest standing lighthouse, built in 1817. 
The island has miles of beaches, which are nesting grounds for the endangered Loggerhead Turtles. After a relaxing lunch with a view of the lighthouse, we headed to Oak Island for our next lighthouse. Built in 1958 and 17 stories tall, this light can be seen from 24 miles offshore & is the brightest light in the Western Hemisphere. Repairmen must wear protective clothing when working in the beacon room. The towns of Southport, Oak Island & Caswell Beach are all lovely coastal towns.An added bonus to driving the highways of NC is that the DOT has planted wildflowers along the highways; they are quite lovely to see.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 9:02 PM 
