Dolphins & Wild Horses

We were up early for our cruise to Beaufort, NC.  It was a slightly rough crossing on the Neuse River, but then we headed into Cedarcreek River and things were smoother. The light sand beaches were surrounded by trees as far as we could see. We spotted pods of dolphins along the way. 

We docked at the historic waterfront in Beaufort where following lunch we took a bike ride tour with Betsy who told us much of the history of the area, the pre-revolutionary historic houses, and the pirate Blackbeard who lived at the edge of town. Betsy says it’s rare to see the wild horses on uninhabited island across the narrow channel on the Rachel Carson Reserve but we saw a large herd . The Rachel Carson Reserve is located between the mouths of the Newport and North Rivers.  Many bird species use the Reserve for nesting and migratory habitat. It’s only accessible by private boat or passenger ferry.  It is named in honor of Rachel Louise Carson (1907 – 1964) an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

Carson began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s.  She turned her attention to some environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides and wrote the book Silent Spring (1962), which brought environmental concerns to an unprecedented share of the American people. Although Silent Spring was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, it spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides, and it inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Carson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter. 

We went to dinner at Blue Moon Bistro in downtown Beaufort. The food was very good and the company fabulous and so were sad it would be our last evening with Karol and Kelly.