Swamp tour in New Orleans
Today we went on a swamp boat tour in the swamp land surrounding New Orleans. We were up and ready by 10:30am and waiting at the office in the campgrounds. We got picked up by the swamp boat tour shuttle and we were the last to be picked up, there was already a family of four and a middle age married couple. We were on our way with a short stop at a historical plantation house that had a shop in it, we looked around and bought some candy (so we could break a twenty dollar note for tipping and what not). In the glass counter I looked in and looked at some of the old and or rare coins that they had for sale, they had some Indian head penny's which are 1 cent coins and the usual penny in America has Abraham Lincoln's head on it. I'm not sure on how many Indian head penny's are in circulation or anything like that but these one cent coins depending on their age and such ranged from $10 to $20 from a date range (from what I quickly saw) from about 1850 to just before the 1900's so I'm now on the lookout for an Indian head penny.
Once we left the plantation house it was a short drive to where the Swamp boat tours are located. We went in and checked in and got ready for our tour, putting on our sunscreen and insect repellent as we haven't really been in a swamp before so we didn't know what to expect. We were ready to go and we were separated into groups and we went with the family of four mentioned earlier that were on the pickup shuttle. Just as we were getting on the swamp boat, there swimming in the water was a little snake which made Kate really happy...
After that we were on our way, our swamp boat driver and tour guide started up the engine and we blasted down the swamp waters. What Kate and I were both surprised at was the smoothness of the ride is was like riding on air no bumps unless we went over a floating tree branch or something but our driver tried to avoid those. As we were blasting along the swamp river seeing some owls and bullfrogs our tour guide took us down a narrow channel off the main swamp river and as we went a little way down it we saw a nest of baby alligators approximately 10 to 15 small ones that were about 3 or 4 months old and about another 10 juvenile alligators that were about a year and a half old. Both groups on alligators belonged to a 7 foot female alligator named "Momma" At this stage I don't think Momma appreciated the interruption to her day and came towards the boat and hissed (as alligators do when they aren't happy) so our tour guide very slowly made our way past her to turn around and exit where we came in.
After that we went back up the river and our tour guide pulled over and told us a lot things about alligators and the swamp that they live in and the surrounding flora and fauna. At which point he asked us all if we wanted to see Butch, who was living underneath the floor in the swamp boat, now seeing as he didn't say what Butch was Kate had to prepare herself for anything he might be getting out of a plastic container he had on the boat. She relaxed pretty quickly after the tour guide pulled out a juvenile alligator just under 2 feet long. He was cool and everybody who wanted to got to hold Butch, that was cool! Kate and I both got to hold him and lived to blog about it :).
After that our tour guide told us more facts about the swamp and other various wildlife and vegetation. We drove to another location and saw some hawks and owls and herrings (the bird herring not the fish) and we stopped at our next location which was another female called Clarice (named after the silence of the lambs film). The tour guide started calling out to her and after a few minutes she actually came which was really surprising, he then proceeded to throw marshmallows out to her....apparently alligators like marshmallows. There were two other alligators hanging out with Clarice as well, another female about the same size and a male approximately 12 feet long. After that we headed back to base and our tour guide really blasted along fast and it was really fun and nice to have the cool breeze after being in the hot New Orleans sun for a good part of the day.
After our swamp tour we were dropped back to our camp grounds and as it was pretty late in the day we walked to a close by diner place called Dot's Diner, its a retro looking diner that has good old fashioned diner food and all day breakfasts and such as well as some traditional New Orleans food. I chose a smokehouse burger and Kate got a Philly cheese steak sandwich, both of which were really really good. We then got some sweet cherry pie for takeaway and walked back to our RV, we sat down and watch the Cubs/Braves baseball game and much to Kate's disgust the cubs did not do well and lost the game, we basically relaxed for the rest of the day, prepared ourselves for the next couple of days of driving. We aren't sure what internet access we will have so we will update when we can so as always stay tuned, comment and/or ask any questions you might have :)
Once we left the plantation house it was a short drive to where the Swamp boat tours are located. We went in and checked in and got ready for our tour, putting on our sunscreen and insect repellent as we haven't really been in a swamp before so we didn't know what to expect. We were ready to go and we were separated into groups and we went with the family of four mentioned earlier that were on the pickup shuttle. Just as we were getting on the swamp boat, there swimming in the water was a little snake which made Kate really happy...
After that we were on our way, our swamp boat driver and tour guide started up the engine and we blasted down the swamp waters. What Kate and I were both surprised at was the smoothness of the ride is was like riding on air no bumps unless we went over a floating tree branch or something but our driver tried to avoid those. As we were blasting along the swamp river seeing some owls and bullfrogs our tour guide took us down a narrow channel off the main swamp river and as we went a little way down it we saw a nest of baby alligators approximately 10 to 15 small ones that were about 3 or 4 months old and about another 10 juvenile alligators that were about a year and a half old. Both groups on alligators belonged to a 7 foot female alligator named "Momma" At this stage I don't think Momma appreciated the interruption to her day and came towards the boat and hissed (as alligators do when they aren't happy) so our tour guide very slowly made our way past her to turn around and exit where we came in.
After that we went back up the river and our tour guide pulled over and told us a lot things about alligators and the swamp that they live in and the surrounding flora and fauna. At which point he asked us all if we wanted to see Butch, who was living underneath the floor in the swamp boat, now seeing as he didn't say what Butch was Kate had to prepare herself for anything he might be getting out of a plastic container he had on the boat. She relaxed pretty quickly after the tour guide pulled out a juvenile alligator just under 2 feet long. He was cool and everybody who wanted to got to hold Butch, that was cool! Kate and I both got to hold him and lived to blog about it :). 
After that our tour guide told us more facts about the swamp and other various wildlife and vegetation. We drove to another location and saw some hawks and owls and herrings (the bird herring not the fish) and we stopped at our next location which was another female called Clarice (named after the silence of the lambs film). The tour guide started calling out to her and after a few minutes she actually came which was really surprising, he then proceeded to throw marshmallows out to her....apparently alligators like marshmallows. There were two other alligators hanging out with Clarice as well, another female about the same size and a male approximately 12 feet long. After that we headed back to base and our tour guide really blasted along fast and it was really fun and nice to have the cool breeze after being in the hot New Orleans sun for a good part of the day.
After our swamp tour we were dropped back to our camp grounds and as it was pretty late in the day we walked to a close by diner place called Dot's Diner, its a retro looking diner that has good old fashioned diner food and all day breakfasts and such as well as some traditional New Orleans food. I chose a smokehouse burger and Kate got a Philly cheese steak sandwich, both of which were really really good. We then got some sweet cherry pie for takeaway and walked back to our RV, we sat down and watch the Cubs/Braves baseball game and much to Kate's disgust the cubs did not do well and lost the game, we basically relaxed for the rest of the day, prepared ourselves for the next couple of days of driving. We aren't sure what internet access we will have so we will update when we can so as always stay tuned, comment and/or ask any questions you might have :)
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