After a few wonderful days in a delightful cottage just off the Piankatank River, Nancy and I have decided that this area may very well take the place of the Outer Banks in our quest to breathe saltwater air.
For starters, it’s 2 hours and 10 minutes, not 5 hours or more if the traffic is bad in Hampton. You could leave after work and arrive in time for dinner. It’s also a little less expensive, though not cheap. The rivers, or “rivahs” as they say in Richmond, are spectacular with fish to be caught and crabs to be netted and steamed. It is both beautiful and serene.
I have fished for years in the Deltaville/Gwynn’s Island area, and we have often stayed in Urbana during the Oyster Festival, so we are familiar with the Middle Peninsula. We took a brief vacation in Deltaville last fall and have another trip planned there for November. We have fallen in love with the Middle Peninsula.
For this mini-vacation, we scanned the menu of VRBO and found a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage with a deep-water dock and spectacular views of Ferry Creek and the Piankatank River. It was so quiet, we had to ask the crickets to pipe it down a few times. They were much too noisy. I fished from the dock and brought in spot, croakers, and small stripers. We sat for hours and watched the waters as trout busted through schools of baitfish and great herons sailed along the shoreline looking for an easy meal. We saw ospreys circling and screeching as ospreys do, while they took random dives into the creek to spear a bluefish or two. We watched a crabber enter the creek and check his pots and sat back as the tide did its twice-a-day thing, nearly swamping the shore at its finest moment, then leaving things high and dry as it ebbed.
The weather – except for a couple thunderstorms – was perfect. High 70s, low 80s and always a nice breeze.
This is truly Gods Country, and His handiwork is evident wherever you look. We hope to be back soon, and often.