East-West North Carolina, November 2023, Part Five

 Our other big outing was to the Carolina Beach State Park, on the Cape Fear River. It is one of the few places that the Venus Flytrap grows in the wild, and there are many other naturally occurring carnivorous plants here, too. They have always been of interest to us growing up, especially for Bill. So this was an obvious visit for us.

The park is large, with campgrounds, but we concentrated on two parts. The first was, obviously, the Flytrap Trail. 

This trail, .05 miles, "loops through pocosin wetlands longleaf pine forests, and wiregrass savana communities. Venus flytraps can be seen along the edges of the pocosins." (from the park website)

Unfortunately for us, late autumn is not flytrap season, so we saw none. Even though it was nice to know that they are there and protected! 

Instead of flytraps, we saw dozens and dozens of pitcher plants. Love them all! 

From threre we drove over the river. Thre is a marina, with fortunately lots of parking spaces, a small store with mainly fishing items, and a concession stand -- closed for the off season, of course.

We walked over to the river. 

This is a bayberry bush. The berries are often used for making candles.

There was also a large platform for anglers, and it also had benches. It will probably not surprise you that we sat there for half an hour of so, watching the river, the boats, and the birds, and chatting with the anglers.

After all that fresh air, I need a little something to strengthen myself again.

It was our last night, and we decided to return to one of the restaurants we ate at earlier. Our landlady had recommend Michael's Seafood Restaurant to us, and rightly so. Wonderful fresh fish, beautifully prepared. And we all got a kick out of the fact that the trendy side dish was Tater Tots!

General thoughts on Carolina Beach: At the time of year we were there it was lovely. However, the houses are reallly crammed in very closely together. I simply cannot imagine what it must be like in high season, probably my idea of hell. There is extremely limited parking at each house, and all public parking is paid.

Although there seems to be a large year-round community, many restaurants were closed for the season. And some of the other things we want to do or see were either closed or under construction.

On the other hand, the beach was empty and lent itself beautifully to long walks, there is still much nature to appreciate, and our rental apartment with the incredibly balcony was surprisingly cheap.