Magnolia Plantation & Gardens with Nature Train Tour

 Our second day's trip and this time I was the designated driver...

After driving about half an hour, we arrived at Magnolia Plantation around 11:30 o'clock.

America's Oldest Romantic Garden

Ancestral Home of the Drayton Family

Established 1676

In its original day it was about 2,000 acres or 809 hectares, mainly with wet rice fields.

Today it is approximately 500 acres or 202 hectares as a lot of its lands had to be sold off.

More info here→ History of Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, Charleston SC, USA | Tour Guide Interview for a short 3:35 video.

Pieter's older brother Toon invented that for a formal photo shoot in the Nation's Oldest City, we were the owners of the Magnolia Plantation: {Do YOU all know Our Nations Oldest City - St. Augustine, Florida?} ←click link.

So finally we got to SEE IT...

We stood in line for purchasing our entrance tickets.

Guess due to the Tornado warning the week before and prior to that another cold spell, people postponed their visit–just as we did!

The guided 45 minute garden tour was NOT available, so we went on our own.

Might have been better for being able to do it on Pieter's pace.

In the back you see the Long White Bridge and we stand there admiring the many swamp cypress trees.

Magnolia Plantation & Gardens is right along the Ashley River

Me next to the sign pointing to the Long White Bridge and we now follow the Native Azalea Garden...

Pieter near the abundantly blooming Chinese Snowball Viburnum which we have in our wood garden.

click link→{Our Viburnum Tinus & Viburnum Macrocephalum - Chinese Snowball Viburnum}

Well, not all azaleas were past their blooming period!

Live Oak trees with their Spanish moss hanging down.

Everyone not from the South might have never seen that...

Dad loved it very much: click→Bye-bye Spanish Moss and dear Friends...

Here Pieter is standing under several Chinese Parasol Trees, 

Another tree that we have in our garden: click→ {Our Firmiana simplex, Sterculia platanifolia, Chinese Parasol Tree}

This is the spot where those Chinese Parasol Trees grow...

Do you see all those knees from the Swamp Cypress?

They grow up from the roots of the trees.

We also have a few in our wood garden, they do grow in swamps and lowlands.

I'd walked a little ahead for capturing this huge water bird.

Don't know what it is, looks like a stork but guess its bill is too long for it...

Maybe one of my readers knows?

Here you can see its long bill clearly.

Yay, found some picture perfect Azaleas and they match Pieter's t–shirt.

A left over from the many t–shirts we had made in Indonesia, in different colors, for Dublin, Georgia's St. Patrick's Festival...

Here we stand actually in the back yard of Magnolia Plantation and it is being worked on...

The front is facing Ashley River and from the video link that I showed in the beginning you get a better understanding.

Shown here is the entire walk we did... 2.87 km in total.

By 13:30 o'clock we'd gotten onto the Nature Train Tour, with driver/guide Sharon.

Just had to capture these tulips and Azaleas near the parking area.

Yes, that is an ALLIGATOR swimming in the marshes...

Those trees were full with Great Blue Herons and Egrets, nesting!

Slave houses, which were used mainly for sleeping, as their cooking was done outside.

An Egret on the wooden board.

To the left another alligator...

Sharon was very knowledgeable about all things nature!

Below is a short Relive video from me driving to Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, crossing the Ashley River and also from our Nature Train Tour; ENJOY!