Sit back and breathe it in because in the low country, there is no other way.
The low country is a place where even the most wound-up and high-stress individuals have no option but to relent to the way of life that is dictated by the area’s natural surroundings. It is said that the low country’s heart beats to pace of the incoming and outgoing tide.
Low country is the strip of land covered in marsh that borders the South Carolina and Georgia coastlines because it is low, at sea level or below. The term “The Low Country” (notice caps) often refers to a region in South Carolina, the area north of the Savannah River. However, this low-lying land in Coastal Georgia is referred to as “low country” based on the topography.
The images in this blog are from the Georgia side.
Barnacles on the piling of a floating dock (from Junkyard Angel video).
Creeks in the low country are flooded approximately every 12 hours with tidal changes that can be up to 8 to 9 feet in some areas. Parts of docks are built on large flotation buoys to rise and fall with the tide. The two extremes are most evident on a full moon when the tide is high and the creeks are flooded with water. Within six hours, that same creek can be nothing but mud.
Tidal creek (from Junkyard Angel video).
Man taking home his driftwood collection (from Isle of Hope Art and Music Fest video).
The marsh grass you see in the foreground serves as a large natural nursery on the low country coastline for fish, crabs and shrimp… all the divine delicacies of Southern eating.
Fly fishing in the saltwater marsh grass (from Explore Barrier Islands video).
Fly fishing guide Robert Sychowski often site casts in the marsh grass at flooded tide. There you can witness redfish, red drum, spottail bass (whatever term you prefer) with their tails above water as they feed in the grass.
People arrive by boat for a concert on a waterfront dock (from Junkyard Angel video).
The low country is surrounded by water inlets. Roads meander around low lands. At times, it is quicker to travel by water than by road to reach a destination.
A man selling his art (from Isle of Hope Historical Association’s annual Art and Music Fest video).
The low country is nationally recognized for preserving the area’s traditions and culture.
In Georgia, the Sea (or Barrier) Islands are home to the Geechee and Gullah culture that is unique to this area. The Gullah/Geechee culture has retained ethnic traditions from West Africa since the mid-1700s when ancestors were enslaved on island plantations.
Efforts to educate the public by surviving members of the Geechee/Gullah community, including Cornelia Bailey of Sapelo Island and the Georgia Sea Island Singers, help maintain and protect the culture’s unique heritage in the face of such challenges of resort development. (This information is from an excellent resource New Georgia Encyclopedia)
Live Oak lined entrance to Wormsloe Historic Site (from Savannah realtor Chris White’s video).
Live Oaks are indigenous to the low country. As they grow, their muscular branches twist and turn creating canopies that provide shade and breeze as the wind flows through the spacious branches. Live oaks in this area mature to over a hundred years old. Many historic plantations in the area were designed with entrances of live oak tree-lined roads spanning hundreds of yards, if not a mile.
Spanish moss drapes this live oak’s limbs to provide ambience that only Isle of Hope Art and Music Fest can offer.
And what would a Southern live oak tree be without Spanish moss? Or should we say, what would Spanish moss be without a live oak? Dead. Spanish moss relies on a living tree for its nutrients and needs a humid climate to thrive making it a mainstay of the low country landscape.
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At Glimsity, in our regular work day we talk to a lot of people, collect useful nuggets of information, gather insight and identify trends locally. Lil is an acronym for Local inside look (Lil). At Lil G Blog, we want to share the good stuff with you. It’s everything that doesn’t fit into our short videos.