10.08.2012 – 10.08.2012  29 °C

Beautiful start to the day with the sun shining but with some grey clouds threatening on the western side of the island. Our day today was a drive down the outer banks from Kitty Hawk to Hatteras (3/4 of the way down the banks). Our trip today was really pleasant. Most of the trip was thru a NP so we passed thru many miles of sand dunes that are covered in sea grass.

Our first stop was in to see one of the many lighthouses that dot the Outer Banks. I like to see lighthouses as they are fantastic to photograph if the conditions are right… Conditions aren’t right today, because the whole lighthouse was covered in scaffolding- I guess they are repairing the paint job on the old beauty! We obviously didn’t hang around the work in progress but continued further down the Outer Banks. Our next stop was into see an old life guard station. It was quite a surprising site, we came over this bridge (the whole outer banks is a string of islands linked by bridges) and could see this large building off near the ocean surrounded by sand dunes. When we got up close we could see that the building was completely shut up. Shut up to the extent that there was no way even into the house! The building is two stories with the bottom story just being an open area with the supports for the house. Where a stair case used to be there is now nothing… I guess it is one way to keep trespassers and homeless peoples out! It’s a bit of a shame though because it is in such a gorgeous part of Nth Carolina… I originally thought it must have been some very wealthy persons holiday retreat, that gives you an idea of the size of the house and the location.

By the time morning tea rolled around we had arrived in the tiny fishing village of Rodanthe. Rodanthe is the home to Kitty Hawk kite surfing and my gosh what a great spot to stop for morning tea. We ordered the best latte I’ve had in the US, grabbed a muffin and found ourselves a spot on the deck out the back of the Kitty Hawk kite store. The kite surfers were out in force (as a storm was moving in quickly) as the wind was blowing and the waves were starting to pick up a bit… What a great time they were having! They were jumping the waves, flying thru the air, zooming up and down the waterway.. It was such a great spot to stop and have a cuppa and of course my camera was clicking away!!

We also spent some time in their kite shop admiring the gorgeous kites and wind spinners.. I mean we are in the home of flight so when in Rome…. By the time we had wandered thru the store the storm had arrived onto us so we jumped in the car and were immediately pelted with rain! Gosh it was dark!! We continued gamely down the road (the rain was pretty heavy) and within no time the rain had let back up.  By the time lunch rolled around we had only made it as far as Hatteras (we had been hoping we could get all the way to the bottom—we were keen because apparently the locals at the bottom of the Outer Banks speak with an old English accent!) so we had to make a call to stop for lunch and turn around to head back up to the top of the Banks.

We had lunch in this crab store.. Dirty Dicks Crabs.. Hmm.. D ordered some oysters and crab, M had the usual (fish n chips) and I had the Jambalaya and Clam Chowder (what else?)… All around we were pretty disappointed.. The seafood was good, but nothing on the seafood we had down on the gulf or over on the W Coast.. that’s the problem.. once you have something amazing it’s hard to replicate it… Actually, if we get the chance we may even do a detour back to Apalachicola just to have some more incredible seafood! J It was THAT good!

Our drive back up the Banks was interrupted half way up with me wanting to take a look at another light house. Driving in to where the lighthouse is located I was so excited about getting a great photo because the lighthouse was silhouetted against a back drop of a very black thunder cloud. No sooner had we parked and the heavens opened.. And did it rain and rain! For almost 15 mins it poured rain.. By the time the rain had let up enough for me to get my camera out, the thunder cloud had rained itself back into a white fluffy one and the awesome shot became mediocre…. Just two minutes earlier… Oh well!

Our last stop for the evening (on the Outer Banks) was in to see the Lost Colony of Roanoke. The colony of Roanoke was the first British colony in the US (1584) but due to many issues the peoples of this colony perished and were never heard of again! Before coming to this part of the world I had never even heard of the Lost Colony! Quite a bit is known about this colony thanks to the leaders journal. So how has the journal remained but no trace of the colony was found??

Ok, so the colony was proposed by Sir Walter Raleigh (SWR) during the reign of Elizabeth I. He raised the capital for the colonisation of the new world (from everything I’ve read on SWR I question his motives in having a colony in the New World.. more likely he wanted the colony so that his raiding parties had somewhere to launch from!! J). Anyway, he raised the capital, he had scouted the area for a colony (his proposal was to create a colony up in Virginia- named by SWR himself- near the Chesapeake bay) and two hundred odd people set out to create a new life in the New World.

The ships got blown off course and ended up on the Outer Banks of Nth Carolina. The colonists knew they were in the wrong place but the ship’s captain refused to take them up the coast to the Chesapeake! So they were forced off the boats at Nth Carolina to build their new settlement. If you could see the land here you would understand why they must have been disappointed to be let off here—marshy, coastal land.. Not conducive to building houses, planting crops etc!!

Anyway, they began to build their houses and a fort to protect themselves from the ferocious natives! Actually, the natives were quite good to them and helped them out the first winter when they were starving (another thanksgiving story). The colonists did it super tough and encouraged their leader to go back to England to get them some more provisions (animals, food etc). The leader reluctantly agreed to leave, knowing that without further support the colonists would perish from lack of food. Not long after he arrived back in England the war with Spain broke out (Spanish Amada stuff) so it took three years for the leader to be able to get enough money, provisions and a boat to return to the colony.

On return, he found no trace of the former colonists. All he found was the old stockade and no people.. From this day forward no-one knew what happened to the colonists. The leader was determined to search the surrounding islands hoping to find a sign of them (maybe they had moved on to a different spot) but a huge storm blew in forcing them to flee back to England. He was never again able to return to look for the colony. SWR apparently looked for the colony whenever he passed near to the USA but he could also not find any trace.. So the first attempt to colonise the New World by the English ended in mystery..

By the time we had finished at the Lost Colony of Roanoke it was late, too late for us to see the Wright Bros memorial. We had decided earlier in the day that we could by-pass the memorial because we had seen quite a bit of their stuff at the Smithsonian. We’ve been to Kitty Hawk, we’ve seen where they completed their first flight, that’s enough for us!

To finish our day we drove off the Outer Banks and stopped for the night at the aptly named town of Elizabeth where we grabbed a quick dinner before turning in early.

Song of the Day– Bob Seger, Against the Wind