Tybee Island

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It was an early start as we were heading over to Tybee Island to explore that area today.

We got to the kayak place pretty early, I think we were one of the first cars there. We just stood chilling outside until everyone was there and it was time to get sorted with our kayaks. After a short introductory walk we were kitted out with what we needed and piled into their van. It was a short drive to the place where we would begin our kayaking. hr tour lasted for about three hours and was really fun. When we first left we headed out into the sea and the water was a bit rough. I was a million miles away from the rest of the group and drifting in the wrong direction. One of the guides stayed with me and was really chatty. That was nice as it put me at ease. We headed out a bit further before we turned inland a little and into the salt marshes. The water was a lot calmer here and therefore a lot easier to paddle in. I loved paddling through the water surrounded by the tall plants. After about an hour or so of paddling we pulled up on to a sand bar and chilled for a bit. We did a little bit of exploring, hoping to find some wildlife but we didn't really come across anything. Then it was back to more kayaking through the marshes. After another 30 minutes or so, we pulled up at a boat quay and at the dock of a bar/restaurant. We had ordered some drinks from there, and the staff brought them down to our kayaks. It was a nice treat to have an icy cool drink. We were now more in a river.creek area and there were quite a few boats around meaning we had to be a bit more careful and aware of our surroundings. Then we headed back through some more marshes and came to the end of our kayaking adventure. We hauled the kayaks up to the road and the van came to pick us up. We were literally a two minute drive away from the shop. I'm glad that we had chosen to do the kayaking activity, as it was loads of fun. I only wished that I'd took my camera with me to get some pictures, but I was too scared of having it so close to the open water.

For lunch we decided to have BBQ, as that was another American food that I hadn't tried. We had found a place online that was located nearby and apparently the BBQ there was meant to be really good. I think it was in some kind of top ten list of best BBQ places. It was about a fifteen minute drive to the place, Wiley's Championship BBQ and it was back on the mainland, just across from the island. The restaurant had some outdoor seating, so we chose to sit outside since it was a nice day. The platter we decided to order was the sampler platter, I think. We also ordered a tonne of sides as they all sounded really good, and a big basket of fried pickles. I also got a coffee to get my caffeine fix, which was much needed after the morning's kayaking. As we were sitting chatting another customer, who was getting ready to leave, came over to us and warned us that the food wasn't too good. He said it was really dry and not really up to 'championship standard'. Our food arrived and we tucked into it. My friends came to the same conclusion as the other bloke, that the meat was too dry, me who knows no different happily ate loads of it. I enjoyed it, although my favourite part wasn't the meat, but the fried pickles. They were so good, these should be available everywhere.

After lunch, we headed down to the beach. It was a bit of a drive from the lunch place. The beach seems to stretch all the way along the island, we tried a few places to find some parking, but all the spaces were full. We did take a quick walk out to one of the beaches. There was a really long boardwalk that lead down to the beach. It looked so pretty. These parts of the beach were really nice as the pale sand looked deserted. We watched a big cargo ship going by. We stopped at a couple of stores to have a look around to break up the search for parking. One of my friends ended up hiring a paddle board. We headed across the street from the paddle board shop to the beach. The beach was pretty nice, but it was a lot busier than the bits we had seen previously. We plonked ourselves down in a spot and I was content just to laze there under the parasol we had rented. I had a nice relaxing few hours on the beach. My friend didn't have much luck on the paddle board as the sea was a bit choppy. Unfortunately, he lost his sunglasses, which was pretty gutting as they were prescription ones.

When we got sick of lazing on the beach, we headed over to the pier to take a look around. To be honest the inside of the pier was a bit ghetto. We thought that we might have been able to get some food there, but all the options were unappetising looking fast food joints. We did walk out along the pier, which gave us great views of the surrounding coastline and the water. There was a small shop selling fishing gear and there were plenty of people fishing off the end of the pier, we chatted to some of them to find out if and what they had caught. We headed one of the streets next to the beach that was lined with eating options. One of my friends had discovered a sushi place earlier, while they were looking for a coffee fix. I couldn't remember the name of the place we went to, but a quick search on tripadvisor leads me to believe that it must be a place called 'Raw Ingredient'. The place looked super new and I really liked the interior, it looked very modern and trendy, without being pretentious. The menu looked really good and we decided to get three different sushi rolls to share. We got a spicy one, a tempura and avocado one, and an avocado, cream cheese and salmon one. The sushi was really, really good. Since sushi is one of my favourite meals, I could have happily eaten more of it. After dinner, we headed back to Savannah to chill at our AirBnB and pack up reading for moving on the next day.

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Photos

Fried Pickles
Wiley's Championship BBQ

Platter
Wiley's Championship BBQ