Bald Head Island Adventure

The coolest part of our trip by far was getting a chance to visit old friends of David’s family at one of their vacation homes in Bald Head Island. We left Kingston Plantation at noon, and headed down to the port at South Hill to meet up with Barbara and Buck. We parked our car in a lot there and went down to the marina with them. Now most people would have to carry their luggage and stand in line to board the ferry for a ½ hour ride across to the island, but we were able to go 1st class on Buck’s boat. We loaded our luggage in the compartment and took off ahead of the ferry, speeding over the choppy water. It was very windy, and we got sprayed a little from the sea, but it was WONDERFUL! I love boats, and I love adventures, and we were about to start another one. We pulled into the harbor and right into the boat slip directly in front of their house. The whole area had a quaint, Cape Cod feel and was very charming. We unloaded our things and all got on the little golf cart headed to the other side of the harbor for a late lunch. It’s so cool that no one has cars on the island, but there are roads. They are just narrower because you go everywhere in either a golf cart or on a bicycle. After lunch, David went off with Buck to play golf, and I took a quick nap before heading out in the other golf cart with Barbara for a quick tour of the island.
That evening we went back to the little restaurant on the harbor and since it was rather cool out, we all had a big bowl of delicious seafood chowder and calamari. When we got back to their house, we talked a little while, then headed off to bed for an early night.

We were awoken bright and early with the sun streaming into our room. It was still windy and a little cool, but a very beautiful day. Buck cooked us French toast for breakfast, then we got ready to head out on our own adventure. This was our room and the view from our porch.

They were so nice to let us go out on our own with their golf cart to explore the island for 3 hours. We had gotten a map so we could figure out where we wanted to go, but decided not to use it to start out with. It’s way more fun to explore and when we come to an intersection just say, “Let’s go see where this road takes us!” So we went all over the island together, feeling like little kids on a treasure hunt. We drove by gorgeous, enormous homes right on the vast expanse of beach, and whenever we wanted we parked the cart and got out to explore and take pictures. It was SOOO much fun! Here are some of the places on the beach side we went to.

I was amazed at how much different terrain there was on the island. I thought maybe a harbor and beach, that’s it, but no, there was so much more. We saw the tropical looking areas, the wooded areas, little lakes and the part they call the creek – which is really like a lagoon. One of the places this island has is a conservancy. (I got a cute hat that says Bald Head Island Conservancy) They protect all the sea turtles on the island and make sure that when the babies hatch, they go towards the ocean and not the land so they have a better chance of survival. Another part of the conservancy were lookout areas where they had signs posted to see if you can spot such and such animal. The coolest animal we spotted was this one! He was just sunbathing on the bank of the lagoon, when I snapped that picture. Then he saw us and turned around to come right over and even turned his head for a better photo. I also found it interesting that the alligators don’t harm the turtles, and let them just swim all around them without even paying any attention to them.

After our little jaunt around the island, we ate lunch and rested a while before packing up and heading out. Once we got back to our car, we had to come right by Wilmington to get home, so we stopped there as well to have dinner with Doug, David’s brother. All in all it was a wonderful trip. We certainly had a blast on our island adventure and we now have a new dream to have our second home on BHI some day.