30 The Great Dismal Swamp

You get to love these small waterside towns.

Only sailors come to Elizabeth City. Motorists rushing down the I95 see only intersections with motels, gas stations and Burger Kings. Elizabeth City got left out of these advances: a forgotten eddy beside the stream of progress. The streets are wide; stores have false fronts; you meet Norman Rockwell people.

Fred Fearling (now 90) came down to the town dock on his electric scooter. He has been greeting sailors for years. If there are four or more boats he brings wine and cheese and a rose for each of the ladies. He had all the useful information.

“The library has internet. You can eat over there at gourmet prices if you like, but at the ‘Colonial’ you get a full meal, and I mean a full meal with tea or coffee, for $5.95. I go there all the time.”

We went. It was a full meal. He was there.


Elisabeth City is at the entrance to the canal through the Great Dismal Swamp. The canal (opened 1804) looks just like the picture on the home page at qcyc.ca Only today, the sun is out; the Bog Cypress trees, which stand up to their ankles in water on either side, are putting out catkins and bright new buds; and the water is dusty with pollen and the petals of the early flowering trees. It is not in the least dismal. It is all very disappointing.

At the North Lock Robert Peak, lockmaster, asks us in for coffee before he lets the water out. We are in no hurry. We are accustomed to this rural life.