Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Charleston, South Carolina. Excursion: Magnolia Gardens & Plantation.

I should have got out and about off the ship this morning and had a wander around the old part of Charleston which, I later learned, is very pretty and has a lot of history to it. Not up for wandering around on my own I stayed on board the ship until lunch time, met up with Paul for an early lunch and headed downstairs and outside to the cruise terminal to meet up with a tour group that I was assigned to.

We were soon on our way, passing through the newer part of Charleston and out to Magnolia Plantation and Garden. Our guide was good and gave a nice history about Charleston, slavery, the civil war and its consequences as well as more information about the place we were going to be visiting.

Butler (our female guide, was named after her grandmother's maiden name - and she answers to Rhett too, because people think of Rhett Butler in the book "Gone with The Wind") explained that Magnolia Plantation was originally a rice plantation with dams and dikes built in fields along the Ashley River for irrigating land for rice cultivation. During the civil war all the plantations in the area were burnt to the ground but part of the Magnolia Plantation survived a similar fate because the enslaved workers, worried about their homes on the property, found the malaria flag that signified that their area had the dreaded malaria plague, and raised it. Soldiers didn't dare come in, thinking that they would get the plague (in modern times we know that malaria is not passed on like diseases such as measles or chickenpox, etc.). How true that part of the history is - I'm not sure. However you can read more about the plantation's history via this link Magnolia Plantation.

Today the plantation is no longer a working plantation but is now a beautifully preserved area of gardens and lakes, footpaths throughout the property to walk along and explore. The old slave dwellings still remain to this day and have been preserved.

When we arrived at the plantation Butler gave us short guided walk along some of the garden paths. Unfortunately just before the walking part of the tour started we discovered that three guests were missing. So we waited. Butler was unsure whether they didn’t hear the information she gave or she was misunderstood, or they decided to do their own thing without telling her. In the end we had to start the walk and hoped for the best. One guest who had dodgy knees did excuse himself from the walking part of the tour and was happy to sit and do his own thing and meet up with the group for the tram tour. The gardens were lovely; some of the plants included magnolia trees (the flowers of which were huge - almost the size of dinner plates), pimento trees, azaleas, Cyprus trees; and plenty of "Spanish Beard" hanging from trees - almost like a moss or lichen which it is not, but is in fact a strange type of aerial plant. It is also known as "old man's beard".

For the next part of the tour we boarded the 'nature train', a motorised 'tram' for an overall tour of the property. Fortunately we just about had the full compliment of guests from the tour group, apart from the gentleman who had excused himself earlier but was due to meet up with the group. Butler went to look for him but he wasn’t at the video information centre. His wife tried to call him on his phone but to no avail. We had to go without him.

The tram tour was interesting as we weaved along the paths, through woods, past lakes, partly along the edge of the Audobon Swamp, and past the former slave dwellings. In some of the lakes we saw alligators - there were a few small ones, being about 2 years old. The nesting season is in full swing so we saw maturing heron chicks and other birds.

After the tram tour we had about half an hour to ourselves, to explore the gardens a bit more or to visit the museum and shop which was in the reconstructed and restored plantation house.

Someone holds a magnolia flower for me - it was too high for me to
photograph!

The missing chap did appear when it was time to board the bus. Apparently he had misunderstood Butler as to where the tram meeting point was, despite having been given a map of the property, and some confusion arose. But he took it all in good stead and was a happy chappy, having explored the gardens at his own pace and seen the museum too.

We were back at the ship in time for some of the tour guests to go back into town - some wanted to go to the market, others wanted to eat out in town because of the ship's late departure time.

We had organised for friends' daughter (Heather) and her son (Liam) to come on board for a visit and to see the cruise ship. Paul was able to give them a tour of the ship but unfortunately I was unable to meet up with them because I got held up at port security. There was a long queue and it was slow going. By the time I boarded the ship and called Paul to find out where he was, Heather and Liam had just left. It would have been lovely to have seen them but timing went out to sea!