Arial photo of Drum Inlet where we shell.
Its been about three weeks since we took our last shelling trip, but I'm so ready to get back out there before cold weather gets here. Hopefully we have another 2 months here in North Carolina. And maybe a storm or two will glide by us in the Atlantic without coming inland and causing anyone any harm to person or property. That's always the best time to great shells, sea fans, starfish and driftwood...just after a storm whether a hurricane, tropical depression or nor'easter.
We travel by car first, towing the boat about 35 miles to this great little rural community called Sea Level, NC. They have a campground, boat ramp and little country store where we some times get ice cream by the scoop as we are leaving.
Tiny canal leading out to intercoastal waterway.
Once on the boat we navigate down the tiny canal to the sound and finally over to the inlet, Drum Inlet. This same area has a small island called Sand Dollar Island where you can find huge sanddollars by the dozens. We only take a couple of the larger ones and leave the rest to populate. They are so beautiful.
As we scoot along in the knee to thigh deep water over to the inlet, we keep watch for sandbars. Once there, we unload our chairs, cooler, bags and buckets for shelling. Andrew and I usually take off as soon as we hit the sand in search of our sea treasures.
Left is the inlet and right is the sound area.
Below is a short black and white video of a 360 view of Drum Inlet. Sorry it's in black and white. It was so bright out I didn't realize that I accidentally switched the video to black and white.
360 View of Drum Inlet
And here are some of the shells we found on that day. Lots of whelk shells. Mostly broken ones that have tumbled in the ocean for years and years or left buried in the whelk graveyard I call it. Most people toss the broken shells back to the sand, but we grab them, paint them and turn them into pieces of beauty and give them life again by adding sand and air plants of different varieties.
A Helmet shell
Whelks, helmet shells, wood with oysters (far left) and other treasures we found that day.
So that's a look at our shelling adventure. We hope you have as much fun shelling as we do!
2 comments:
I LOVED LOVED LOVED IT....I want to go now!!!
Hubby and I were down at Atlantic Beach in August. It's the first time I ever REALLY went shelling. I was so amazed by all the different kinds of shells we found. We came home with a cooler bucket full and I've found a new hobby... making seashell decor for my home. You have some really inspiring ideas! Thank you for sharing!
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