Alligator-Pungo Wildlife

The Pungo River
35 31.29 N 076 33.90 W

The Alligator River and Pungo Canal are VERY remote parts of North Carolina. The waters are surrounded by swampland. Highway bridges cross the waterway about once every 20 miles. No houses, farms or structures are visible. No cell phone signals.

 It can also be very beautiful. We had a great sunset last night and a spectacular pre-dawn scene this morning. Today the wind is still so the waters make a reflecting pool. It was fun going down the Alligator-Pungo canal becuase we could peer at the shores and into the woods looking at the detail. Part of the reason why we like cruising on rivers is that one is closer to shore and sees more detail.

I thought that on such a calm day we would see alligators, turtles and fish. Nope; not a one. Nor did we see deer or bear or a snake. Nor did we see any soaring birds or even gulls. The only animals we saw were one kingfisher, two cormorants and one horse fly. That is curious. I would expect such a remote are unspoiled by man, to be thriving with wildlife. It if was there, it wasn't visble to us. One thing, the animals do not need to come to the shore to drink water. They can stay deep in the swamp and drink the same water.

Even though there is a paucity of wildlife, we are still surrounded by Quebecois. It seems that 2/3 of the sailboats we see are from Montreal. One must give them credit -- they really love their boats and they really use their boats.

Pre-dawn on The Alligator River