A bit of exploring just outside of Savannah today.
We started off with one of our favourite activities, wandering an old cemetery. This one is called "Bonaventure" and is on a bluff east of Savannah overlooking the Wilmington River. The cemetery is a very naturally wild place with trees and azaleas everywhere so it makes it a very beautiful walk as well as interesting. We picked up a map and guide to some famous "residents" and headed off.
A few location shots below to give you a feel of how lush it is.
We don't know who Rauers was but Di joked "he must have wanted to make a final point" ... Oh dear!
This statue below is of a child called Gracie Watson and is modeled on a photo of the actual child. There are also quite a lot of lovely angels and carved marble adornments.
The most famous statue, a weeping lady, was featured on the cover of the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". However, it had to be moved to inside a museum as souvenir collectors were chipping off bits of it. No respect...
We liked this one too...
We love the variety of trees and bushes dripping with Spanish Moss, it really adds to the atmosphere and you get this lovely fragrance as you wander.
Bonaventure cemetery seems the type of place where individuality of headstones seems to be encouraged.
This bench is a memorial to Johnny Mercer, a famous American songwriter who composed Moon River and many other very famous songs (some of which are listed on the front of the bench). The guy behind is not really famous for anything...
Di takes a break to enjoy the breeze and the view over Wilmington River.
There are some newer sections within Bonaventure Cemetery, including a space for the American Legion, however we had to laugh at the sign below. Any takers?
Lots of German names throughout the headstones but this one reminded us more of an ogre...
Get Smart? Not so if he ended up here almost overgrown by shrubs. James Bond was buried opposite, but the inscription was so faint that you couldn't see it on the photo. Trust us.
After the trip to Bonaventure Cemetery, we continue south a bit to our next destination, an old plantation, but first a break a Wendy's. Coffee and baked potato for Hans is a great snack.
Our next destination is Wormslow (or Wormsloe as it was later renamed to sound more fancy). It is an old plantation now managed by Georgia State Parks. Fancy entrance gate and a long long line of oaks.
A bit of spiel about the original owner, Noble Jones, and the plantation. The 9th generation of his descendants still live in a latter day plantation house here which unfortunately is not open to the public.
Noble Jones was the Savannah colony's original surveyor (plus he had about three other jobs) and he divided up the land as per the layout designed by Oglethorpe.
This tiny tiny door handle was on the door just inside the entrance where you paid your fee to get in. The smallest we had ever seen.
This grave is sort of Noble Jones' grave. Sort of because he was buried here at Wormslow first, then moved to Colonial Cemetery in Savannah town after a severe hurricane, then moved again to Bonaventure Cemetery when grave robbing became common place among poor people.
However, on the way to his last destination Noble Jones' remains were somehow lost and even though there is a headstone with his name on it in Bonaventure Cemetery (which we saw) they don't really know where is buried, only that it would be there somewhere.
They did things a bit differently in colonial times...
Hans in front of the salt marshes behind Wormslow. The beach in the far background was used to depict Africa when they filmed Alex Haley's Roots book.
Tabby - a type of building material that was used a lot in this part of the world.
Not much is left of Noble Jones old homestead and the remains are now referred to as the "Tabby ruins". By the way the house did not fall down on its own as tabby is very strong. It was actually dismantled to form the foundations of the new plantation house where his descendants still live.
Our guide, Jesse was quite a character. Very passionate about the subject and with a lot of stories and anecdotes to tell.
Jesse built this fish trap himself in the colonial style. Still to be tested in live waters, but he seemed to be optimistic about it and very proud of his efforts so far.
There was a colonial village as part of the Wormslow plantation grounds and Di just lit up when she saw this large cooking pot. If only...
In front of Hans is a water collection "well" used by early moonshiners.
The Wormslow plantation was about 300 acres of cotton in its prime but you can't see any evidence of that today. By 1930 production had stopped and the land returned to nature quite rapidly given the amount of sun and raim that this part of the world gets. What you see behind Hans in the photo above is typical of the landscape now.
A final self portrait looking back along a 1.5 mile Live Oak lined driveway into the Wormslow plantation before we leave. A great place.
After our outing outside of Savannah, we drive back to our motel, have a break and then wander down to Broughton Street and Leopolds ice creamery (since 1919) for a treat.
Nice all around including the interior. Looking good...
Leopolds ice creamery these days occupy two shop fronts, one area where they sell it and one area where you can sit down. This guy was loitering in the sales area...
After indulging in sweets perhaps a bit too much, we wander around the corner to Reynolds Square and sit down on one of those lovely benches for a while. Here we are looking west.
And of course, the ever present lovely trees...
We then go back to our motel again get refreshed before heading out for dinner.
We found this pub style place on Bay Street just east of City Hall earlier in the day and decided to come back as it looked to have good karma.
Well, we had flounder and 10 prawns and hush puppies and calamaries and fries and onion rings and a cob of corn.... That is one main and one entree (or entree and appetizer in American standards) to share between us. We could barely finish it. All washed down with a margarita (Di as you can see below) and a Sweetwater 420 beer for Hans.
In summary, that was a lot of food and drink and very tasty and we wander back very full and happy having paid a not too brutal price.
All good and good night.
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