Montauk is named after the Montaukett tribe who inhabited the area. The Dutch arrived followed by the English. If you wish to read the history of the area, I refer you to en.m.wikipedia.org Montauk is a hamlet of Easthampton, c.120 miles from mid Manhattan. Montauk is situated on the most easterly tip of Long Island and is surrounded by the ocean.
The area boasts holiday homes of some of the great and the good of American society, including Paul Simon, Ralf Lauren and a host of other celebrities not known on this side of the pond!!
It has a winter population of c. 3,000 and a summer one of 30,000; being a favourite holiday spot for New Yorkers. As it is a heavily forested area, it has a very low population density. If one sells a property here, the local council retains a percentage of the price to enable it to buy up all vacant land that comes up for sale, thus ensuring the low density continues. As a result the area boasts 6 National Parks, where one can hike and picnic. However, in the Parks Lyme's disease is a threat; a disease that results from the tic, which is very prevalent in this area. The disease can debilitate one for years.
It was a beautiful morning, c.75F. with a refreshing breeze, as we set off on foot for the short walk to the beach. September is a lovely month to visit here as the season ends on Labour Day weekend, when the crowds return to NYC. The beach was almost devoid of people while on Labour Day weekend there wasn't a patch of vacant sand to sit on..
We returned to base and continued exploring by car. Our first call was one of the many resort areas, very quiet now at the end of season!
Afterwards, we visited the Montauk airforce station,
a radar station designed to protect the NYC area in case of attack during the Cold War.
We continued further along the coast to see the glacial deposits deposited 22,000 years ago. Geographers, the coast here is being eroded, is very unstable and exhibits bluffs, named 'hoodoos' by the early settlers, derived from the word 'voodoo', namely 'evil thing'.
We continued to the
anti aircraft base at Camp Hero. It served as a coastal defence from 1943-1947 and became a training station thereafter, until its equipment became obsolete.
From thence to Montauk airport,
where only private planes can land.
There were 70 planes on the tarmac on Labour Day weekend!! As we sat there, two men set off for NYC - flying for 1 hour 20 minutes beats the road traffic jams or the 3 hour train trip!!
Finally, we arrived at Montauk Point Lighthouse, the first lighthouse in NY State and 4th oldest, active lighthouse in the U.S.
Surrounded by water on three sides, Montauk sports numerous marinas. It is also a surfers paradise.
Our tour concluded by lunching on lobster roll from Sammy's cart,
by the water's edge - a fitting end to a very pleasant morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment