Adventures in Florida 2008: Part 3 1/2/09

On our last day in Florida we decided to drive up the coast an hour to Georgia and take a ferry to Cumberland Island. It was on my "to do" list for about a year, and I was glad to fit it in, even if it was on our last day.

Cumberland Island is Georgia's largest barrier island. While the southern part of the island is uninhabited by man, it is teeming with wildlife, including 150 wild horses. To get there you have to take a 45 minute ferry ride or use your own boat. The island's diverse history makes for spectacular scenery.

We boarded the ferry in St. Mary's, GA, and 45 minutes later arrived at Cumberland Island. There are two stops that the ferry makes, the first one is at the Icehouse Museum and Dungeness ruins area. The second stop is at Sea Camp, the area for camping and hanging out at the beach. We wanted to see as much as we could so we decided to get off at the first stop, and get back on the ferry at Sea Camp when it was time to leave. It would be close, but we were sure we could make it, we had a couple hours to walk 2 miles.

As we exited ferry the breeze caught our faces, and six wild horses were grazing in the field just ahead of us. We walked over to the ruins of the Dungeness Mansion and spent some time wandering around and taking pictures. Jeremy looked at his watch and realized that we had less than a hour to get to Sea Camp to be picked up by the ferry. The one thing about visiting Cumberland Island is that you have to get back to catch the ferry or you will have to hire a private boat to come and pick you up. The park rangers said a private boat trip usually runs about $250, making it a very expensive trip to the island for the day.

We decided to pick up the pace and get to the beach as fast as we could. There are a couple areas with people enjoying the beach, but the rest was empty. Jeremy checked his watch again and we decided to pick up the pace even more. There were people on the beach ahead of us and we hoped that we had made it to Sea Camp. As we got closer we saw the sign for Sea Camp Beach, we had made it. We only had about 20 minutes before the ferry left the island so we half-sprinted over the boardwalk and through the canopy of oak trees. I was practically taking pictures as we were walking. We made it to the dock where the ferry was loading, five minutes to spare. 45 minutes later we were back in St. Marys and our trip was over.

Unloading back at the dock in St. Mary's I saw pelicans sitting on poles watching us. I couldn't help but smile, and think about Jeremy's friend back in St. Augustine.