Movie on up to gems of Georgia
SET on golden, sun-drenched beaches, Baywatch was pure cheese – but it was also one of the most-watched TV shows ever, with a weekly audience of 1.1billion in 148 countries worldwide.
Now, with our appetite for 90s nostalgia in full swing, the lifeguards are back – this time in an action-comedy reboot for the big screen, with original favourites Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff in cameo roles.
So when the call came to explore the movie’s beach location, Tybee Island, I made sure I was first in line. Who doesn’t love to bury their toes in powder-white sand on the lookout for hunks in trunks?
But Tybee Island’s not in Malibu, or even Hawaii. It’s in the state of Georgia, a scenic drive up the coast from Florida.
It’s Gone with the Wind territory, America’s deep south of cotton plXaXntXaXtiXonXsx, xfrxexsxhx-water swamps, salt marXshxexsx, shrimping and alligators.
Gnarly, centuries-old oak trees are draped in eerie shawls of Spanish moss, only 20 miles from where Forrest Gump sat on a bench in a leafy square recounting his life story.
I’m exploring Georgia’s chain of holiday islands, which are rich in history and wildlife.
However, this afternoon on Tybee’s three-mile beach, I’m mostly watching a handful of fit young men strapped into stunt kites. This is where a huge obstacle course was set up for Baywatch filming last summer, with dunes and surf the perfect backdrop for the action-comedy antics of stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Zac Efron and Kelly Rohrbach.
Local girl Hannah comes to the beach most evenings and remembers the cast and crew hanging out in town, ordering burgers from a seafront restaurant and getting stuck into huge sharing plates of seafood at The Crab Shack.
The seaside town is a mixture of charming old detached homes, with verandas and rocking chairs where locals sit out on the hot, humid summer nights.
But the area has a lived-in, seaside feel, much treasured by the descendants of those who have had homes here since the 20s .
Wide-open beaches surround the island, making it ideal for picnics, beach games, jogging, watersports, dolphinwatching and lazing in the sun.
This semi-tropical coast has idyllic temperatures in spring and autumn and the sea breezes take out some of the humid summer heat that hangs around 27-32C.
Tybee is an easy 18-mile drive from Georgia’s second city, the historic trade port of Savannah.
When the town was founded in 1733, the first settlement was based on a grid system and formed 24 “pocket parks”.
One of them provided a backdrop for that famous scene in Forrest Gump. But don’t go looking for his bench there – the iconic prop is now in the Savannah History Museum.
Who knows, if the new Baywatch movie matches the success of the original TV show, perhaps some of those red floats and tight trunks might end up on display behind a glass cabinet, too.