Assateague Island

We were only around around an hour from the Assateague Island the next morning, and the three of us headed over the small bridge and towards the beach. We approached the car park, and as we got to the booth the women told us that the booth was closing and we could put money in the honesty box instead. She also impressed upon us at great length that we could not swim in the see as hurricane Melissa was off the coast and there was some very strong currents. We reassured her that it was fine, we didn’t want to go swimming. She repeatedly told us that we couldn’t go in the water. We said, it was fine, it looked freezing and we had no intention of swimming. She told us that we couldn’t go swimming though. Eventually, having escaped this endless conversation, we parked in the car park. I was excited to see that there were showers, but less excited when they turned out to be cold ones only. We thought we may as well look at the camping and see if they had space as it was a beautiful spot for the night and a hot shower would have been a great bonus. So we went down to the first campsite that told us they were full, trying the second campsite there was space, and for $35 a night we got a pitch. While a bit over budget, we treated ourselves, promising to spend less in the next few days. Molly was excited to be out for the first time and we let her run around near the van. 

Travelling around we saw several wild horses, which the island is famous for.

We hadn’t had a campfire yet, so tonight seemed the perfect time. Having actually paid to camp for once, we didn’t want to spend a stupid amount of money on firewood when there were so many forests near. We were also low on the beer that we weren’t allowed on the campsite, that we would definitely not be drinking. Having found some extortionate Budweiser, we set about raiding the nearest private property for wood. Needless to say we didn’t get the best firewood, but we did get a big pile, and it was free.

Back at our camp spot we parked up and unloaded our firewood and cleaned out our now bug infested van. Then, leaving Molly in the van, we set off for a walk down the beach.

It really wasn’t swimming weather, but it was pretty.

We walked for several hours and enjoyed the pretty patterns in the sand…

…the crashing waves

…the stormy skies

…and the wildlife.

We found several of these, which turned out to be Horseshoe crabs that can grow up to 2′ in length.

After a while we reached a viewing point over the beach where we briefly stopped, before returning back to the van.

The sun was starting to set as we walked back and the rough seas had blown foam all over the beach, which wobbled in the wind.

We let Molly out to play next to us, and she bounced up and down the length of the camper, running to and from the both of us.

As I started cooking for the evening, we were approached by a guy named Steve who owned a T25 parked further down the campsite. We chatted for a while, to the point were the food was long past cooked and it was dark. We offered him beer which he couldn’t drink and he offered us weed which it would have been rude to ignore. A while later, we agreed to eat our meal and go down and see him in his van. Reuniting on his campsite, we had a look at his van and talked about his dreams of shipping it over to Europe for a roadtrip. Before we knew it, it was getting late and we needed to go and check on our new kitten as well as burn all our mouldy firewood we had painstakingly collected. We had a rather quick but effective campfire accompanied by a hot chocolate with additions, before heading to bed for the night.

Slightly worse for wear in the morning, it was while we were having our tea that Steve dropped past again. While he didn’t come in and have a chat, he dropped off some breakfast he had bought for us, which was a lovely thought.

We were supposed to check out at 11am, but after getting up rather late and then deciding I should make bread, followed by us both having showers… it was more like 12.30pm before we moved out. I did make some pretty good bread though, I might add.

Still not ready to leave this beautiful place, we parked in the main car park and decided to have another walk down the beach. Today was a different day, lovely and sunny.

After a short walk, we decided to spend a few hours sunbathing on the beach and we brought Molly with us to experience sea for the first time. She was not particularly convinced by the experience of water, but sat with us on the sand for a while until I got too cold and we headed back.

Our goal was to be off the peninsula that night, which meant driving over three hours to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which is around 20 miles long, leading into Virginia Beach.

The bridge itself costs $14 which isn’t too bad when you consider how long it is. It was also a pretty scenic drive across.

By the time we hit Virginia beach it was properly dark, so we headed to the nearest Walmart for convenience, planning to head to North Carolina Outer Banks the next day.