Looking Back: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

In late April of 2013, Norbert and I flew to the US on vacation -- exactly one week after flying back to Germany from my mother's funeral. We didn't really know what to expect from ourselves, either emotionally or physically after her unexpected death and the flights and time changes.

We flew Düsseldorf-Atlanta-Jacksonville and spent the first night at an airport hotel in Jacksonville. The next morning we drove north to Folkston, Georgia, and from there to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  Years ago, Norbert spent a lot of time working in Georgia, and found a story about this park in our local German newspaper afterwards. He was sorry not to have known about it earlier, and was determined to get there. We finally made it!

Our first stop was, of course, the visitor's center, where Norbert made a new friend.

We then booked a boat trip, on one of these. It turned out to be just us and the guide, perfect! She was a young woman who knew such a lot about the park and was very passionate about it. A wonderful guide.

We soon saw our first 'gator!

But mainly we just looked in awe at the overwhelming beauties of nature.

There were animals, too, like this owl:

And this alligator, which tried to camouflauge itself: