While in Beaufort, I took a double-decker bus tour of the city, a tour of 3 period buildings at the Historical Site, a water cruise on the Water Bug to see the wild Mustangs from Carrot Island, and then went into the Maritime Museum. It was a packed day, but fun and I got to see a lot of history. Unfortunately, I could not take pictures on the inside of the houses, but they had some really great period artwork and furniture, including a music box from the 1700s (the music discs each contained one song, were made of metal, and looked like a large circular saw blade!). I got to see the jail house and the Apothocary/Doctor's Office as well, very cool! One of the pieces of history Beaufort is famous for is Black Beard the pirate was known to come here a lot. He was said to rumored to visit a home called the Hammock House (it is the oldest home still existing in Beaufort and is now a private residence), and his flagship, the Queen Ann's Revenge (QAR) was wrecked off the coast. Artifacts from the QAR can be viewed at the Maritime Museum, and the area is a dive site preserved by the government (they only offer a few 'public' dives a year), and the artifacts they find go to labs (such as East Carolina University's in Greenville, NC) to be preserved and dated. On the boat tour, we went down the Turner River along the coast of Carrot Island, where a group of about 50 wild mustangs roam (Shakleford Island, the next island over, is home to about 150 wild horses). These horses have never had a human touch them or provide them food, and it would be illegal to do so. They survive entirely off of the land and even dig holes in the ground to get the left over "fresh" rain water reservoirs. The horses live as wild horses to in Brothels (one adult male and his females and their babies) or Bachelors (the lone males that do not have a group of females, either they have just matured and gotten kicked out of their Brothel and have not yet gotten their own Brothel or they had a Brothel and another Bachelor fought them for control of their females). You never see a female alone, she is always in a Brothel. We saw one Brothel group hidden in the trees/bushes and then we saw a Bachelor who was closer to the water, so we got a better view. This Bachelor that we saw was about 13 years old, and he had lost a battle to another male and lost his Brothel, so sad, but I guess that's how it goes.
Fun trip, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the area! You could easily spend a day here, take your time and walk around to enjoy.
