Christmas in the Lowcountry

Travel Stage: Still at the Yemassee campground
Date Range: Dec 24 – Dec 26
Summary: In our efforts to get away from our swampy campground, we visit some neighboring areas and find the beauty of the Lowcountry. 

​Despite our awful environment ("The Underwater Campground"), we made the best of our situation for the holidays. 

Beaufort

​We made a run to this cute town on the Harbor River to get our Christmas Ham. Not knowing anything about it ahead of time, we were surprised to see a charming downtown that was quite bustling! Parking was cheap and easy, and we enjoyed the waterfront park with some ice cream, watching the boats come and go from the marina. 

Hilton Head Island for Christmas

​All we wanted for Christmas was some beach time! So, Christmas morning we packed a picnic and our beach supplies and headed for the famous Hilton Head Island, which was about an hour drive away. We started the day with sunshine and seventies in Yemassee, but right when we crossed onto the island we also crossed into a murky, misty, chilly cloud that sat stubbornly on the shore and would not move.

​We got out to Burkes Beach with our lawn chairs and coolers to find a dense white fog all around us. We couldn’t see more than 10 paces away. The sand disappeared into a gray/white gradient. We could hear the waves but could not see them. The beach was pretty busy despite the weather, and people and dogs came in and out of view as dark moving shapes slowly coming into focus. 

​Determined to make our Christmas beach picnic happen, we laid out our blanket, filled our plates, and poured our wine.


A strange dog came out of nowhere (the beach had a “within voice control” dog policy that seemed perhaps a bit too relaxed), lured almost surely by the smell of ham and sweet potatoes. A few yells and an less-than-apologetic owner finally dispelled him.



​People, not able to see us in the fog, nearly stumbled over us as they passed. The mist particles clung to our hair, our skin, our clothes, and eventually accumulated enough to make us damp and chilled.

​Feeling a bit disheartened, we finished our food and packed up. We drove around the island a bit to see some of the resorts and homes, and then left Hilton Head.  As soon as we crossed the bridge, they sun came back out and the temperature rose to the 80s. In the rearview mirror the brown misty cloud hung over the island, mocking us. Back to the swampy campground we went where at least it was warm! 

Used Pixlr Express photo editor to add a little holiday pizazz to the otherwise gloomy day!

Botany Bay Plantation

​The day after Christmas we went for another hour long drive to go to the Botany Bay Plantation. This place was actually recommended to us by one of our followers – big thanks because this place was amazing!

​Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve/Wildlife Management Area is a state preserve on Edisto Island, South Carolina. It was formed in the 1930s from the merger of two Colonial-era cotton plantations: Sea Cloud Plantation and Bleak Hall Plantation. It is over 4,000 all told, with plantation ruins, marine and estuarine wetlands, pine-hardwood forest, agricultural fields, and 2 miles of undeveloped beachfront used for nesting by endangered loggerhead sea turtles and least terns.

The plantation has free admission, and you take a self-guided driving tour through the preserve. The natural beauty is breathtaking, from the Spanish moss to the salt marsh and the beach. 

​The Boneyard Beach is a spectacular shoreline with amazing tree skeletons in the surf and untouched shells! There was a melancholy beauty about the trees on the eroding shoreline. 

If you one for natural beauty and wild places, definitely add this one to your travel list!

Southern Christmas

Despite our campground and our failed Hilton Head experience, we had a fun Christmas in the Lowcountry. It was warm, and there was no snow, and that was definitely a new experience for us!

We hope everyone, no matter where you were, had a Merry Christmas!