Land of Promise

Southern Virginia Beach is different from what most people think of when they hear the name of the city. There are no hotels. No StarBucks or souvenir shops. No Exxons or Texacos. Hell, there isn’t even a road with more than two lanes and most roads don’t even have lines, but the ditches will swallow your Suburban. This is a place of pickup trucks and tractors, boats and duck blinds, water dogs and shotguns, farm stands and Sunday mornings in a pew. Until relatively recently, the people in this part of Princess Anne County made their living off of the land or from the water - or both. Farming. Commercial fishing and crabbing. Waterfowl guiding. People's lives were tied to the land and the water - many still are, and trust me, there is no shortage of water. The region is a study in the geography of water, and the water is different - it is not colorless. The waters are tannic and brackish and shallow and shallower. 

The influence of water can be seen in many of the place names in Pungo and Blackwater.  Neck is common in names - a neck being land with water on at least two sides. Charity Neck. West Neck. Buzzard Neck and Morris Neck. And before there were roads there were landings. Now, the roads are named for landings. North Landing and West Landing. Mill Landing. Campbells Landing. Back Bay Landing and Public Landing. Naturally, several roads are also named for the  many waterways. Indian Creek and Indian River. Muddy Creek, Nannys Creek, Blackwater and Head of River Roads. Even most of the few places to eat are named for things related to the water: Blue Pete’s; Redhead Bay Cafe; Back Bay Market; Blackwater Trading Post. 

Southern Virginia Beach is rural and an environmental wonderland for lovers of nature and water. And it is a Land of Promise, just as the ridge and road names predict.

Schedule your ecotour with Moore To See Photo Expeditions to explore this environmental wonderland.