GOING FOR Gold

Georgia’s 110-mile coast packs in a wealth of treasures, from Savannah’s historic downtown to the white-sand beaches of the Golden Isles and coastal communities with West African roots. Go island-hopping here among moss-draped maritime forests to discover a magnificent variety of wildlife, including right whales and loggerhead sea turtles

- AARON MILLAR

In the early autumn light, the salt marshes of Georgia’s Golden Isles glow a glittering amber.

I hike along the shoreline as maritime forests dripping in Spanish moss arch their limbs above me. A bald eagle stands watch on its perch. Bright blue kingfishers skim the still pink of the river.

Suddenly, my guide, Willy Hazlehurst, stops and puts a finger to his lips, pointing to a circle of bubbling water just beyond the beach. A splash, an exhale, two nostrils poking above the water. Then I see them: three manatees playing in the shallows, their big, cumbersome bellies breaking the surface as they perform slow, lazy rolls.

“This is why I love these islands,” Willy says in melodic, Southern tones. “You can get the beach anywhere, but this is something hard to put into words.” Here are three that might just do: pure Georgia gold. I thought these islands were named after that sunrise colour. But now I get it — these islands are golden because of the way they make you feel.

Despite being a mere 110 miles long, Georgia’s coast packs a big punch. Ecologists call it the ‘Georgia Bite’ because it’s the innermost point of a stretch of coast that gapes like an open mouth as it extends south from Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Cape Canaveral, in Florida. That unique geology funnels a huge diversity of plant and marine life towards its shores, from loggerhead sea turtles, which lay their eggs here every summer, to right whales — among the most critically endangered animals on the planet — which use the warm, mineral-rich waters as a calving ground in winter.