Sensational Pudding: Pluff Mud

We made it to Kiawah with no troubles. When we got there we had to check in to pick up the keys to the condo. Unfortunately, the condo was not ready for us so we had to explore for awhile. So I took her to the beach where she instantly jumped right into the ocean. And that act set the pace for what would be the next four days. If there was light Kelly was outside playing and exploring.

That first afternoon was spent showing Kelly around the island. Every time we stopped she pulled out her fishing rod. And you would have been wise to have bet she would catch something. Fish were jumping everywhere. We went to the lagoons where I had seen alligators in years past and to the marshes where the herons hunt. But you would also have lost your money because she never got even a bite.

The next day I wanted to go on a bike ride with her to the end of the island. Sand on beaches generally comes in two properties. If it is wet, then typically it is like concrete. And if it is dry, then it is like play sand. But at the end of the island, where the ocean divides the main land with the island, the sand takes on a third property. Here every step you take is like how I imagine walking on the moon would be. The sand sinks and depresses with your foot, but also doesn’t get blown around like play sand. So you leave behind big foot prints.

On the way we rode by the world famous Ocean Course. It has hosted and is scheduled to host many major golf tournaments. Every hole has a view of the Atlantic. Even the driving range is a sight to see. Which Kelly saw close up, because she hopped the fence and ran onto it looking for balls.

Finally we made it to the end of the island, at probably the peak of low tide. Other than a few rangers who were far off, we were the only people in sight. We wanted to get to the mainland and were hopping the ocean would be shallow enough that we could ride our bikes across. It wasn’t. We had to wade water up to our waste to get through. Also the sand beneath us was like quick sand constantly sucking us down, making that wade very difficult and very wet. This was particularly concerning to me, because I did not want to ride all the way back to the condo sitting on that bike seat with drying tightie whities.

But we made it across and started exploring. Kelly loved the sand and the views. We saw a large flock of pelicans sitting on the shore and nice sized sand dunes. But we also saw a group of small turns sitting off in the distance near some marsh grass. That was a curiosity to us and we wanted to see what had made them clump there. As we started towards them we noticed the sand was very odd. It was like walking on a trampoline. We would take a step, the sand would push down supporting our weight, and when we lifted our foot the sand came right back up with us. Immediately we felt the need to jump up and down on this wonderful surface. When I landed I pushed through the sands’ surface, went down to about my ankles, and noticed a disgusting smelling black icky substance was pouring out from the holes I had made. Right away I had difficulties regaining my balance and I noticed I was sinking. But when Kelly jumped she immediately went straight down to about her thigh. At this point she honestly felt she was going to die. She was sinking and could not get out. And told me to take her hand, and while subconsciously I knew that was stupid idea I took it anyway. And down I went to my thigh. We made it out by crawling out on our hands and knees.

Later we learned that we had jumped into a pit of pluff mud. Pluff mud is essentially decaying plant matter. I believe what had happened is similar to the skin of pudding. The sand from the ocean had blown across the pluff mud and had create a thin but somewhat strong surface that was able to support our weight. But when we jumped on it, that surface broke and down we went and up came the pluff mud.

So after the first full day on the island we nearly killed ourselves, and we still had another one and half days to spend.