Beaufort and Charleston

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The drive from Savannah to Charles, our next destination would only take about two and half hours, so we decided to break it up and stop along the way. While researching, we found that Beaufort looked like a good place to stop, so we all decided that this would be a good place to break the journey and let us explore a little more of South Carolina. It only took us about an hour to reach Beaufort. We were also unsure how to pronounce the name 'Bewfort' or 'Bofort', I went for 'Bofort' and my friends for 'Bewfort'. The main place that we wanted to see was the Old Sheldon Church Ruins, which were in the opposite direction to the main town of Beaufort. We decided to head there first as we really wanted to see it. The drive was along a smaller, country road flanked with long trees.

We drove past the church at first because it is pretty well hidden by the foliage. We did a u-turn and parked up in the carpark across the road from the church. Sheldon Church was also known as Prince William's Parish Church. It was built in around 1751-57 and was partially destroyed by a fire in the American Revolution. The roof and interior were rebuilt in 1825-26. We spent a while wandering through the ruins of the church. I really liked the design of the church. The brick pillars in front of the main building, which had long windows, almost down to the floor. The interior of the church was pretty small, I found it hard to imagine a lot of pews filled with people as I think it would have been quite cramped. The inside of the church also contained what I presume was the old stone altar. After wandering around the church, we took a walk through the churchyard. I read a few of the gravestones and wondered what kind of life people had back then.

From Sheldon Church, we headed towards Beaufort proper. The town seemed quite quiet and we easily found a parking space in the carpark next to Bay Street. We took a walk down to the water. What a pretty view! The water and the boats were sparkling in the sun and the long grass was a gorgeous shade of green, which contrasted to the others nicely. Palm trees also lined the area. We had spotted a coffee shop while we were walking so headed in there for a caffeine fix. We were still full from lunch, so managed to resist all the nice looking cakes that they sold. After relaxing for a bit, we headed out to explore more of Beaufort. By this time, it was after 5 pm so very little was open. All the museums and stuff like that were closed, but we did find one or two shops that were still open and we had a look around those. Since we couldn't see or do anything else, we headed back to the car and drove for about an hour and a half to reach the final destination of our road trip, Charleston.

We arrived at our AirBnB to find that the owner wasn't there. We had been told where the key had been stashed, so were able to let ourselves in. The owner's dogs were there, which was a nice surprise. This AirBnB place was really different to the other places that we had stayed in. The other places had definitely been accommodation solely for people on holiday. However, this place was different. It looked like the owner lived there full time and was renting it out to make money when they could. It was a bit weird as all their stuff was allover the house, photos, food in the fridge etc. It also wasn't the cleanest place we had stayed either. One complaint if AirBnB let the owners charge a cleaning fee, the least they could do is clean the place thoroughly before guests arrive. Anyway, we got settled in and t was nice to have a proper bedroom to myself again, as I had mainly been sleeping on sofa beds in the living room. I was also sad that the owner took the dogs away as I would have liked to keep them as they were great company.

It was pretty late by the time we got sorted. We were feeling hungry, which was surprising after the big lunch we'd had at Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room. The place we were staying at was pretty far out of the centre of town, so we hopped into the car and drove for about 15 minutes to reach the downtown area. Since we were feeling pretty tired and it was late, we didn't want to explore, but just eat and then head back home. Since we had left it so late, a lot of places were closing up. We found a bar that was serving food, so we went in there to get something to eat. It was pretty quiet and although they had lots of tables for people eating, it felt like they were closing soon as there weren't many customers. We sat at the bar and I ordered a sandwich. This was the first meal on our trip that we decided not to share everything. Although I enjoyed having my meal to myself, it was weird not to be trying a few different dishes.

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