Daufuskie Island

We couldn't find much information about Daufuskie Island from our guide books; the marina name and number was wrong. We had heard there wasn't a bridge, just a ferry from the neighboring Hilton Head Island. Conroy's book from 1972 talked of its isolation, Gullah population, large alligators, and enormous rattle snakes. We had to see this. We anchored across from what we thought was the ferry dock and dingied in. The dock led to the dirt road and on to the paved road. We planned to explore a little before going to the trouble of bringing the bikes ashore. The distances were greater than we had thought and once we got a map at the small museum, we decided to come back in the morning with bikes. Map in hand, we biked to every corner of the island, ending at the beach. Who should we meet but a woman from my home town of Owensboro, KY. We walked and talked, learning much about the island. There are several gated communities which only allow golf carts, explaining the lack of cars; hers is now in bankruptcy. Property taxes are based on the 2007 assessments and you can't give the lots away. One man tried giving away a $90,000 piece of land to avoid the taxes and had no takers. Services like ferries and maintenance are disappearing. We rode through the equestrian center and saw no horses or people. One golf course is abandoned. What we did see was a beautiful island with paved roads, pine forests, a long deserted ocean beach, nothing commercial. It was a perfecting day of biking and beach combing, and no, we didn't see any alligators or rattle snakes. We also didn't see any natives, but were told there were 20 Gullahs left. We did see John Mellencamp's home a got a picture of it. We did hear that Pat Conroy never comes back.