Hilton Head and Rural South Carolina 2012

We spent our annual time-share week in Hilton Head the week after Christmas, as we have done for about the last eight years. Driving down, we got off I95 and took back roads through St. George and Walterboro, SC. There are some shots from that part of the trip and then shots from Hilton Head. If you like birds, you want to take a look at these pictures.

We spent one day on Daufuskie Island, which lies between Hilton Head Island and Savannah and Tybee Islands. You have to take a boat over. The island was originally inhabited by descendants of African slaves who were freed during the Civil War and maintained the Gullah dialect. Pat Conroy taught in a two-room school on the island in the 1960s, and that experience led to his book, "The Water is Wide." I had recently read the book, which prompted this trip. Parts of the island have been developed as resorts and gated communities, but much of it remains wild and rural. There are 250 permanent residents, some of whom are Gullah.

At the end of the week, we spent some time in the historic town of Bluffton, just north of Hilton Head.