The Outer Banks - OBX

Alright! Pat and I finally made it back to Outer Banks. We skipped Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hill this time. We arrived in Manteo (Roanoke Island) by way of US64 and stopped off at Fort Raleigh to see if there was anything worth taking pictures of - there wasn't, really. The Elizabethan Gardens might have been, but that's not for me. I was interested in the story of the Roanoke colony and Virginia Dare, but we had neither the time nor the inclination to stick around for the drama The Lost Colony.

The road across Manteo continues across the bridge to join NC12 on Bodie (pronounced "Body") Island. (I've also seen it spelled Bode, but that's beside the point.) We turned south on the "beach road" and saw Bodie Island lighthouse in the distance, enclosed by scaffolding. My first inclination was to skip it altogether, so we drove on past. But, before we got out of range, I pulled off and took the picture above. I couldn't help myself. The lighthouse has an interesting history in any case. The first one was designed and built by the premier lighthouse builder in the country in the early 1800s. They had trouble from the start, and when it was all over North Carolina had its own leaning tower. That one was destroyed and replaced in time for Confederate Troops to fill the second one with black power and blow it to kingdom come. After the Civil War, the third and current tower was built. The work they're doing on it now was a long time coming, but better late than never. I am a little concerned, however. In the high res picture, it looks to me like either the tower or the scaffolding has developed a list. And, in nearly all the pictures of the tower I found online, it seems to be leaning into the onshore winds.

The next picture shows how well the weather turned out for us. We crossed the bridge at Oregon Inlet and arrived on Hatteras Island. The remains of the dune fences extending down the beach have been around for a long time. I understand they're reasonably effective, but require almost continuous maintenance.

This shot shows some happy surf fishermen (and women?) and, since I never saw anyone pull in any fish during our two days on the OBX, I can see where this would be a very relaxing sport.

The surf's looking good here and the pelican, floating center stage on the face of that curl, is about to be disturbed by the oncoming breaker.

I'm afraid I was captivated by the birds on this trip, especially pelicans. I guess I'm going to have to spring for a longer lens and put more effort into these outings if I'm going to capture the wildlife. The remains of what appear to be a jetty are on the left. These efforts to reverse the effects of erosion are less effective than the dune fences, but there's not much maintenance. The efficiency of such measures is apparently inversely proportional to the maintenance costs.

These last two pictures bring to mind the phrase, "from sea to shining sea". They give an indication of just how glorious our day on Hatteras Island was. I couldn't have asked for anything better.