Y'all come back now!

'I am following the river, down the highway to the cradle of the Civil War' (Paul Simon)







































We're hunting down the elusive SOUTH. Everybody tells you, 'over in Alabama/South Carolina/Georgia - that's the real South. Now, you're not gonna taste grits like you'll have them in North Carolina/Mississippi.' Every town seems to have some claim to a conclusive battle in the Civil War. Certainly every state has a few claims on literary or musical greats. So we're still hunting.

Admittedly, our main concern these days is mileage and hence we've sacrificed dalliances into history. From New Orleans we raced up the Natchez Trace parkway through Mississippi and Alabama to Tennessee and now we've wound our way through Georgia to Beaufort, South Carolina. A key feature of our roadtrip at the moment is catching up with old friends. In Sewanee, Tennessee, we stayed the night with my friend Cari who was a camp counsellor with me when I was 18. In Beaufort we are hosted by the Burtons. Paul and Mark grew up barefoot and carefree in Ladysmith together in the '70s.

This part of the world is dead beautiful. It is the opening shots of 'Prince of Tides' - indeed Pat Conroy is a veritable neighbour of the Burtons. The abundant water teems with scaly, shelly, befeelered things, which are all good eatin' - all excepting the 'gators which stop you being lulled into a false sense of paradise.

Winter is extending its tentacles, even in the balmy South, and we feel like we've turned towards home. And what a good feeling that is, despite the delights that still await us.

R