Wednesday, June 2, 2010

SWAMP BOAT RIDE

Tuesday, June 1 – nothing.....pool, shopping, Paul did win at shuffle board!!!!!

We didn’t have time to put up all the things we did in New Orleans and in Abbeville, so, we will be updating the blog with some past adventures.

Friday, May 28 – Big day today. Started out with a Champagne's Cajun Swamp Tours.

sign

Brian, the owner, did a great job on the tour.

brian-water-lilly-pad

He was born and raised in these swamps, the Lake Martin Swamps. He is Cajun and speaks French (The Cajun Language). We went in a 15 passenger, 24 foot aluminum flat bottom craw fish skiff, that he built specifically for these tours.

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The tour is slow so you can view wildlife and take pictures as we travel through the swamp. We traveled through very dense water vegetation that is native, and non native, to South Louisiana. We also traveled into the dense interior of the swamp, and go where no other type of boat can go.

grassy-area

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In the “olden” days, people use to stuff their pillows, beds, chairs, etc. from the moss that grows on trees similar to the one below. After awhile, the moss would attack all sorts of bugs that would bite whoever sat or laid on the chairs and beds…hence the saying, “Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Isn’t amazing what we learned on this swamp boat tour…LOL.

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Those little pieces of cypress are called knees. Paul uses these when he carves.

paul-carves-knees

We saw all kinds of birds....woodpeckers, Anhingas, Cormorants, Wood Ducks Herons, Roseate Spoonbills, and a Bald Eagle. We even saw nests of babies up in the trees.

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bird-flying 

 

heron

The flowers were amazing…according to Marsha.

Water hyacinth

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water-hyacinth-flower

The Lilly pads were huge!

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It was pretty hot for the alligators but we did see several swimming in the water. In cooler weather they will sit up on logs or the banks and sun themselves.

alligator

We were in the swamp for about two hours....all for $20/ea. A very reasonable price for this wonderful tour.

Lots more pictures here.

That is all for another day. See y’all later.