The day started with an extraordinary sky – seems we are under a flight path…

We decided to be tourists again and went on a 20 mile cycle to Morehead City and Atlantic Beach. We started with a look at one of the memorials to the Confederate soldiers lost on the Civil War. Apparently they were and still are always positioned with their backs facing ‘The North’.

Next stop, Fort Macon, named after Nathianiel Macon who was a hero in the Revolutionary War.  It was completed in 1834 to defend Beaufort but was not used until 1861 when the confederates seized it during the Civil War. They waited to see action for 12 months until a stand-off, a siege and finally, a surrender to the Union troops in 1864. The development of rifled cannons that could destroy the brick walls of such forts rendered them obsolete, and Fort Macon was decommissioned again.  The only other active service it ever saw was in WW2 when its role was to identify German U-boats that menaced the east coast. All they could do was inform the allies of siting’s as they had no means to attack them directly.

The fort is now one of 2 National State Parks in North Carolina, surrounded by a healthy coastal ecosystem including more marine forest.

On the cycle home we passed another cemetery in Beaufort with more Live Oaks. These ones, away from the fierce ocean winds, were much bigger. A local man living opposite also explained the tree house in one of them. An owl known to live there was found injured and taken to a rescue centre for treatment. Once recovered it was released but had become too tame. The people built him this house and fed him until he remembered how to be wild again. Most amusingly, he has his own house plaque. All the houses over 100 years old in Beaufort have the same plaque showing the name of the family and the year it was built. This one is ‘Hooter House – 2012!