Swamp Tour…

We planned our days depending on what information was available with regards to the arrival of the new drive shaft for the Big Fella.

ur pontoon boat that would take us out into the waterways…

Chuck called to advise that the part was not available immediately and would only arrive in New Orleans on Thursday or Friday, so Patricia and I set about filling our days with interesting things to do.

One of the items on our bucket list was a Swamp Tour, and after making the booking, we were collected from our hotel and driven about an hour south of the city, to the little town of Barataria, which lies south of the Jean Lafitte National Park.

We were joined by a few other visitors before we were called aboard a large aluminum pontoon boat named the Swamp Thing…

Our captain took us out onto a tributary of the Mississippi and began explaining some of the history of the immediate area.

We passed a cemetery located right on the banks of the channel, where Otis Redding had sat composing a number of his more famous songs. Many of the graves had been damaged by flood-waters, and efforts were being made to stabilize the area to save the remaining graves.

Engineers were working hard to save the remaining graves at this riverside cemetery…

House on the bayou. I liked many of the simple but effective designs of these homes…

Shrimper on the channel. Most of the people in this area make their living from fishing, be it for crab or for shrimp.

We motored past some beautiful homes, standing side by side with ramshackle fishing camps. We passed many shrimping boats, tied up to docks tucked away on quiet backwaters…

Then our captain, a grizzled Cajun who had lived all his life in these waters, steered us further away from the main channels and deeper into the swamps.

He dug around in a large trunk near the wheelhouse and passed the head of an Alligator Gar around for us to see. This fish is the largest freshwater fish found in North America and can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh over 150 kgs. It is an evil looking thing and feeds by ambushing other fish from the dark underwater vegetation that it conceals itself in.

“Why the long face, Darling…??” Patricia with the head of an Alligator Gar.

No holding a smelly fish head to my face, thank you very much…!!

Apparently there are thousands of these pumping stations scattered throughout the swamplands of Louisiana. Natural gas is pumped deep underground, causing the crude oil to bubble to the surface and then fill these tanks. A tender boat tours the pump stations and empties the tanks every few days.

Tranquil moment just before people started handing out alligators…

The head of the Gar put away, the captain then disappeared back into the trunk and came out brandishing a young alligator… One of the woman on the boat almost fainted, and refused point blank to touch the reptile… Not so the entrepid Mrs. B…

Patricia comes to grips with a juvenile finger-cruncher

“I could be your purse, but I’d rather not…”

Crocodile Rondee shows them how it’s done…

Little blighter liked having it’s back scratched….

There are over 50 species of dragonfly in the southern swamps

We began seeing smaller alligators cruising near the banks or under the branches of trees overhanging the banks. Many of them made straight for the boat, which I found strange, until the captain began tossing marshmallows overboard and calling out to the alligators to “come and get ’em”…!!

Our first flat-dog makes an appearance…

The alligators homed in on the floating marshmallows and swallowed them one by one… I felt a little uncomfortable watching this, and wondered what tourist in Africa would think if our guides tossed bits of meat out of the Landrovers to entice lions closer… Sooner or later, someone was going to have a bite taken out of them…

Mmmm…should I take the left hand or the right hand….

Then came one of those “don’t try this at home” moments… Our guide opened the side door on the pontoon, knelt down on the deck and began placing marshmallows directly into the alligator’s mouth’s, and tried to make them leap out of the water to get them…

“One day I’ll get him….”

“Oh shoot…!!! I missed again…”

Over the next hour, we fed countless alligators and motored in and out of narrow channels looking for them. The largest one we spotted was about 9 feet long, well shy of the huge crocs that are common in many rivers in Africa. I am not sure if it is as a result of the constant diet of marshmallows that these particular ‘gators live on or not, but they seemed less villainous than their African cousins…

I would have enjoyed watching our guide try dropping a sweetie into the mouth of an 18 foot Nile Crocodile…

“Here children, come and get a sweetie from Uncle Albert…”

He then balanced a marshmallow on the heads of a few larger alligators and watched as they swam around until the sweet fell off and was snapped up by the wearer, or another ‘gator that followed closely waiting for a treat…

Anybody seen my marshmallow…??

Camouflaged Terrapin…

After two hours out on the water, we motored back to the dock and were in turn whisked back to our hotel in New Orleans. It had been an interesting day and we were glad to get out of the sun and into our air-conditioned room.

A short while later the heavens opened and it rained for the remainder of the afternoon, allowing me to do a little work on my blog and prepare for our next outing in the French Quarter.

©GBWT 2013