Wednesday, 28.09.2022. The first effects of Hurricane Ian were slowly becoming noticeable. Our originally planned tour to Fort Sumter was canceled on this day and the coming days. The battle for Fort Sumter was basically the starting shot for the Civil War in 1861, so it is a place of historical significance.
Today, the Magnolia Plantation was on the program, one of the oldest in the southern USA. Built in 1676 by Thomas and Ann Drayton, the estate is still owned by the family today, now in its 15th generation. Originally a rice plantation, it is now a huge garden where you can easily stroll all day long.
We arrived at around 9:30 in the morning, still quite early (opens at 9am), so there weren't many tourists yet. On-site, we could choose between different bookings. We chose to visit the gardens of the plantation and the Audubon Swamp Garden. We could also sign up for a free tour of the old slave houses, which we did.
Gradually, the clouds in the sky cleared a little, but it was already a bit windy. Therefore, it was not possible to book a boat tour. These were already signs of Ian... We strolled through the beautiful garden, which was very well maintained and offered visitors all sorts of things from the plant world. So we were busy for a few hours. At 12 o'clock, the interesting lecture on the topic of slavery on the plantation began. At its peak, up to 140 slaves were employed in the rice fields and the main house. The guide made it clear that there was never such a thing as good slavery just because they may have had slightly better living conditions on other plantations. The average time a slave worked in a rice field before dying was 3 years. A gruesome chapter in the history of the USA...
Lastly, we had the walk through the Swamp Garden at Magnolia Plantation ahead of us. We eagerly searched for alligators that lived there in the wild. Stefan even brought his binoculars. The search was unsuccessful at first, until we finally saw them. We were able to capture both alligators and turtles in pictures. In some parts of the garden, which was more like a huge park with alligators, turtles, snakes, birds, and spiders, Steffi felt a little uneasy... 'what if an alligator cuts off our path here?'
Satisfied and relaxed, we headed back, when Steffi almost ended up with her face in a web of a huge spider that had settled there. After a short scream, she skillfully avoided the spider and its web. Phew, that was a close call.
It was already late afternoon when we started our journey back from the plantation. On the way, we saw some crowded roads of evacuees heading inland with their cars. Gas stations were already being frequented by drivers. By the way, Steffi had already received a warning about Ian on her smartphone in Spanish and English. It seemed to be getting serious. We had already booked a Historic Ghost Tour in Charleston for this evening at 10pm, when Steffi received a message asking her to contact the organizer. Oh no, now they want to tell us that the tour will be canceled due to the hurricane. Great. But, it's not a big deal. Due to low registrations, our tour was simply merged with the tour that was already scheduled for 8pm. So the new start time was 8pm. Since we didn't want to do this tour on an empty stomach, we treated ourselves to BBQ that evening.
8pm, the group had already gathered when our guide started. First of all: the man did a really good job. The enthusiasm with which he told us stories about Charleston was outstanding. Unfortunately, we couldn't understand everything he said, but much of it was made clear to us through his facial expressions and gestures alone. One short story he told us was this: When Charles II, after whom Charleston (Charles Town) was named, was in exile in France without any money, he reportedly financed his extravagant love life by promising his mistresses lands in his city in the new world. No one could have known that the mistresses would actually emigrate to Charleston and claim their new lands, which is why there is now a French Quarter in Charleston. Countless, sometimes truly shocking stories about undead, pirates, and witches later, the almost 2-hour tour was unfortunately already over. After a slightly longer private chat with the guide, we made our way back to our accommodation.
Best regards,
Steffi and Stefan
