March 16th – The Swamp Tour

On Tuesday morning we headed out early to drive to Lake Martin for a swamp tour starting at 10am.  The weather was cool and sunny but with the promise of rain in the afternoon. 

The owner, Bryan Champagne, has a 24ft boat, of his own design, with specially designed motor to go in the shallow swamp water of 8” (sometimes less) to a foot deep. The motor is  air-cooled, rather than water-cooled like a typical outboard. That means that there is no water intake to get clogged that would cause overheating of the motor. Bryan designed this engine as well! The working end of this unit is heavily built to protect the propeller from damage by the logs. As we cruised through the swamp, this lower unit would frequently hit a log then bump up and over it. Bryan was so used to this that he hardly noticed but it seemed to me that whole thing was going to be destroyed.

Custom built outboard.

There were 15 people on the tour. We spent almost 2 hours going through the swamp, learning about the difference between a bayou (river) and a swamp. Actually, a bayou is part of a river that splits off from the main branch, continuing on through a delta. We also learned that the cypress trees can tolerate water flooding their roots, but need a dry season for the seedlings to grow. The swamp we are going through has been dammed further south and never drains, which means that there will never be any new cypress growth in this swamp. This is a big concern and the local people have started planting seedlings along the edge of the swamp where it is dry. In the long term, this dense swamp will become a small lake surrounded by trees.

 Cypress trees covered in Spanish Moss.                               The base of a Cypress tree.

Alligator sunning on a log.

We saw about 3 different varieties of egrets, a bald eagle, flocks of ibis, a few greater blue herons, some lesser blue herons.  We stopped to watch 4 or 5 large alligators – one was a large female guarding her young ones and she hissed at us!

It was interesting to watch this gator puff up its abdomen and then hiss out the air.

But the treat of the day was when our guide spotted a young alligator near the nesting site area.  He turned the boat around and scooped up the alligator.  It was about 18” long. Bryan estimated it to be about 3 years old.  After taping it’s mouth shut, we each got a chance to handle the young alligator.  They make such amazing sounds!

 Vic holding a young gator.

Further along the shoreline, we peaked inside the crook of a cypress tree to spot 3 baby nutria (look like a small beaver but the tail is round like a rat instead of flat). They are not native to North America but were brought in from South America and there is a $5 bounty for each one, as they try to return the area to its natural inhabitants.

Bryan had mentioned the area had 1½ inches of snow about 3 weeks ago, very unusual for this area.  We could see many palm trees either damaged or totally dead.  We were unable to have a meal of crawfish as Bryan explained the weather was so cool they have buried themselves deep in the mud.  The locals say they should come out in a few weeks as this has been an unusually cold winter.

On our return to the RV, we toured through the town of Abbeville to view some of the stately mansions. Here is one home with a huge black willow tree towering over the front yard. This tree must be several hundred years old. The branches go every which way...none of then straight.

Luckily, we did the swamp tour first thing in the morning as it started to rain about 2 pm and kept up into the evening hours.  The damp and cool got to us so we turned on the furnace to make the RV comfortable. Sad to say, we have had to pack away our shorts and bring out the jeans and jackets.