I woke up early again, around 530am, so decided to write my blog. But the advantage to waking up so early was that we could watch the sunrise, which was amazing.

Unfortunately we found a little bird dead on the decking – I think it had flown into the massive windows. It looks like a hummingbird as it was tiny but I wasn’t sure.

After a quick shower we popped outside again and we saw some birds of prey, most likely hawks, flying over the mountains.

I am still so amazed at how beautiful our lodge is.

Everyone came to ours for breakfast. We made pancakes with eggs and flat sausage and lots of coffee.

We then drove the bus a little further out into the mountains to Chattahoochee National Forest where we parked up to do a small hike to Long Creek Falls.

The hike was around a mile and was not too strenuous.

Long Creek Falls tumble over 50 feet and have an upper and lower waterfall. We did consider a quick dip but the weather was decidedly cooler than yesterday so we decided not to.

We did walk up to the top of the waterfall.

We walked the same way back to the bus and then drove a short distance up the road to a car park. Here we picked up the Benton MacKaye Trail. Benton MacKaye inspired the Appalachian Trail as he wrote about the trail in an article in 1921.

A little way along the trail we came to a point where there was a really lovely view so we stopped here for some lunch.

Outdoor lunch with wine is always so tasty!

We continued on the trail which was a gradual uphill climb for around 2 miles. We came to a point where we then merged on to the start of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain.

The Appalachian Trail is 2,194 miles long. It starts in Georgia and goes to Maine and passes through 14 different states. It claims to be the longest hiking only trail in the world.

We made it to the top of Springer Mountain.

We took a different route back which was a slightly steeper descent but a bit shorter.

We then drove into Blue Ridge for some refreshments.

The houses were all just as I imagined American houses to be with the front porch and the white picket fence.

Our destination was The Boro Inn, an Irish Pub run by a Scotsman. The Deco was weird but interesting.

I had a pint of Wexford Creme Ale which was really smooth and delicious.

As we were sitting at our table one of the locals, Eddie, treated us all to a shot of caramel moonshine which he made himself – it was actually really smooth and nice.

Around 7pm we headed to the restaurant where Sid, Steve, Nod and Sarah joined us. Catherine, Bob and Cindy’s daughter, and her boyfriend Cain also joined us.

We shared some starters, including some fried green tomatoes and I had shrimps and grits as my main.

After dinner we headed back home and straight to bed as we were all really tired. I’m still waking up around 5am each morning, my body clock hadn’t adjusted yet.