Visitors Centre
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 21 Nov 2011 23:47
|
The Great Dismal Swamp
Visitors Centre
When I came in to park I managed to
get a good twang on a fine branch and it rained pine needles all over us. The
Captain snarled when he saw the state of his nice clean deck now half an inch
deep. I went to make myself look busy indoors, he got the dustpan and brush,
muttering something under his beard. That done we went to sign the visitors book
in the small centre this side of the canal, Bear bought me a tiny pair of bee
earrings and he chose a fridge magnet of a mosquito with the words “asking for
blood, any type will do”. Then we trotted over the eighty
foot, floating pedestrian bridge to visit the larger visitor centre on
the other side.
On the way over the bridge we did the ‘photo thing’, Beez the last
boat of the three, I hope the black bears we find like my super hero
trousers
The Visitors
Centre
We were welcomed by a lady, bimbled
round the exhibitions, then we sat in the theatre, in the dark, in the back row
of course, and watched a short film about the park. The Great Dismal Swamp is
the largest remaining swamp in the eastern USA. Approximately 112,000 acres are
protected by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife
Refuge. In 1974 the state of North Carolina purchased 14,344 acres from The
Nature Conservancy for $2.2 million to establish the Dismal Swamp State Park,
here in Camden County, North Carolina, so that valuable biological, geological,
scenic and recreational values could be protected. The area is very flat and the
soils are almost entirely peat of various depths. The Division of Parks and
Recreation is charged with preserving these values and providing park
experiences that promote pride in, and understanding of, North Carolina’s
natural heritage. The park is on the National Register of Historic Places,
designated a National Historic Engineering Landmark, and recognised as part of
the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. It is also part of
both NC and Virginia Civil War Trails.
The swamp supports a large variety of
migratory neotropical birds, mammals (including the Dismal Swamp southeastern
shrew, black bear and bobcat), reptiles, amphibians and significant butterfly
fauna.
I asked Bear to
pose – bad idea
He wasn’t impressed and
this one wanted to chew his own foot off
The rest were
stunned
We wandered the
boardwalk until closing time, Bear not too thrilled at the number of
wrigglies we might see
I got to feel Tony
and his weapon (these Park Rangers are also Law Enforcement
Officers)
ALL IN ALL
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE BEAR HUNT TOMORROW
NO WRIGGLIES PLEASE
.
|