Wild Horses of Corolla

The above pictures were taken of last night's sunset.  Almost didn't make it to get the pictures.  

Made it up and to the beach for the sunrise.  It was better than yesterday.  

Our tour of the horse sanctuary was at 10:30 so after the sunrise, we drove north to Currituck Island.  We had time to spare so we got a sausage and egg croissant and drinks at this bakery...delicious.


At 10:30 we loaded up on a four-wheel drive tour truck to tour the horse sanctuary.  The driver's name was Gary and he was great.  He knew so much information and was very funny. He even knew the name of every horse and who the head stallion was and all that horses mares and babies.  He said horses were very territorial and each stallion had their own area of the sanctuary.  When the road was paved, the first day of it's use, four horses were killed.  Citizens of  Corolla decided to form a non-profit organization to protect, conserve, and responsibility manage the wild horses.  The horses now roam freely on the northernmost Currituck Outer Banks on nearly 7500 acres.

Most of the time we were driving on the sand dunes and beach.

There were tree stumps along the beach.  Gary told us that these were proof that this part of the island had once been forest but erosion had moved the beach westward and stranded the forests in salt water.

The horses are Spanish Mustangs and have been here since the 1500's when Spanish explorers brought them and then abandoned them to fend for themselves which they have done.  DNA testing has been done of the horses and that test showed that all of the 103 horses that are currently here came from one horse.  The horses are totally self-sustaining.  They are not fed by humans.

The horses feel safe and move freely among the  700 houses that are in the sanctuary.  We felt lucky to have seen so many of the horses.  They weren't afraid of all the vehicles driving through their area.

After the two hour tour was over we had pizza for lunch.  It was very good but we brought half of it home for supper.

This is where we ate our pizza.

This is Bodie Lighthouse.  We have passed it every day, two times a day, for the last three days so we decided to get a picture of it.  

This was taken this morning by a kind man who was watching the sunrise with us.  I think he did a good job.

Today is our last day of sightseeing.  It has been a good day and great nearly four weeks.  Sadly, tomorrow we pack up the motorhome, load up the car, and drive nearly 1200 miles to Decatur.