27 January ‘09 Tuesday
What a day… Louise found a company that advertizes that they have “The Best Swamp” tours in Louisiana, so we made our call.
What a day… Louise found a company that advertizes that they have “The Best Swamp” tours in Louisiana, so we made our call.
For less than $20 each we (and 10 others) were put aboard a small flat bottomed swamp boat and headed out into the Honey Island swamp.
For 2 hours we were in the bayous of the Honey Island Swamp and experiencing Louisiana’s wetlands and wildlife. Some of the wildlife that we saw included the alligator,
egrets,
heron,
water moccasin, turtles,
nutrias,
and the un-seeable. The swamp was named after a special tree here… The Tupelo Tree.
The Tupelo Tree seems to be attractive to the honeybee that build their hives deep in the base of the tree. The “natives” will make their way there at the time that the hive has the largest amount of honey available, and using some of the hanging moss from the area, start a smudge pot. As the bees were over-come, the harvest would begin….thus, Honey Island Swamp. Our guide had so many tales of the area and his life here in the bayous of Louisiana that our time with him was a real treat. He also must be some “chef”…, he told us what to look forward to eating and he always told us just how all the foods were prepared for the best flavors. What a treat. Fact is, after our tour I just had to find the “guides choice” for our lunch for which we were more than ready. It turned out to be “Dickey D’s”. As we walked in, I wanted to make sure that they knew that “Cajun Encounters” had sent us, and the first thing they said was…well I’m sure that you will want to have a cup of our “Gumbo”. Well hell yes, and I’ll also have an Oyster Po-Boy as well… Now we’re eatin… Following lunch, Louise and I went back to the bridge were we launched for our swamp tour and launched our kayak.
Our guide had pointed out a small passage that he said that he couldn’t get his flat-bottomed boat into, but with our kayak we would see some great “bayou”. We paddled through that part of Honey Island for over an hour before coming back out. Fortunately it was easy to follow in and out. Coming out, we had a slight current that kind of pushed us and gave us a quiet glide through the swamps…pretty cool…
With daylight starting to fade we headed back towards the coach. There is a brewery here in Abita Springs and we’ve been told that “if you’d like a good beer”, this was the place. Well we stopped. Fortunately they offered a very good IPA so we were well satisfied. It happens that this place we walked into was not the brewery but the bar/restaurant, so that means that now we’ve got to visit the “Brewery”…too bad isn’t it? After enjoying a good refreshing beer, we headed out the door to head home. In the same parking lot of the pub is a small fish monger. As we walked by, I saw that he was advertizing “fresh and tasty crawdad”. Well after the last exposure to crawdads I wasn’t too excited to try another “tasty crawdad”, but after giving it a quick thought and knowing that now we’re in Louisiana instead of California, I should at least try a “sample”… Well after the sample and after a great conversation with Howdy,
I walked out with my 2# of crawdad. I must say that now that I’ve tasted the real thing I’m really livin…
