September 7, 2015
We have been talking about doing a swamp tour for a while. We looked into some closer to home, but they only offer air boat rides. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but we did have two boys too small to ride. We found this one over by Slidell, LA. We were on the 9 am tour. It took about 2 hours to take the tour. We started out going down the river to the south to see if we could find any gators to feed. Apparently all of September is open season for gator hunting. Our guide told us most of the big gators had been killed or where in hiding. We still saw about 7-8 gators. They tried to make us feel better by saying a couple were around 8-9 foot gators. They were really about 5-6 feet, but it was still amazing to see them up close and watch them feed.
Eliza, Dad, Daniel, Bradley and our guide, Captain Mike.
Getting on the boat. It was nice that it had a covering to help keep the sun off.
Looking across the river.
Before we even left the dock we noticed some one coming to check us out.
He was looking for some marshmallows.
Captain Mike was all too happy to hook him up.
It was really neat to see him glide up out of the water to get the marshmallow and hot dog.
Captain Mike used a long bamboo stick to feed him.
Nathan thought it was so cool!
Our tour was on the Pearl River. There was tall grass everywhere. It was beautiful.
These three boys loved it when we went fast. There was only two other kids on the tour besides ours. This little boy is one of them.
Found another gator!
Capt. Mike told us the gators can feel the vibrations from the boat motors. He claims they can tell the difference between the tour boats and they have their favorites. He says they can also tell which boats are bass fishing boats and they hide from the fishermen.
Open wide big guy!
Capt. Mike made sure to feed the gators on both sides of the boat so everyone could get a good look.
After being out on the river for about an hour we headed up the Pearl to the swamp area. We passed several gator traps along the way, but didn't see any dead gators. We only saw two little ones on this part of the river. They were pretty shell shocked. They wouldn't even come over for a marshmallow. We had a good surprised waiting for us in the swamp.
There were two main types of cypress trees in this swamp area. This type isn't very healthy and dies easily. You can see the rot at the bottom.
Our first look at our surprise! Wild Hogs!!
I was afraid the motor from our boat would scare them away, but it didn't. It was like a call to dinner!
They started to come out of the woods!!
Mama and one of the babies.
The water here was about two, two and a half feet deep. The Mama just stood there with her mouth open and waited for the marshmallows to be thrown.
Marshmallow in the air! I think she caught it.
Capt. Mike started handing marshmallows to all the kids to throw to the hogs. It was super fun!
The babies stayed back because the big ones were kind of aggressive when it came to the marshmallows. Once the kids started throwing marshmallows everywhere more hogs came out.
When the smaller ones started swimming out to get marshmallows we kept thinking, "Any time now. A gator is going to get one any time now." However, nothing happened! One of our friends told us they saw a gator take a small hog on their tour. We weren't as lucky...or maybe we were. Just depends on how you look at it. :)
See you later hogs!
Nathan and Eliza loved throwing the marshmallows.
Proof Josh and I were there.
A last look at the babies on our way out.
Capt. Mike said some reps from Disney came down and studied the trees and swamp area so they could make an accurate replica of the swamp in one of their parks. They fell in love with two unique trees in the area and have exact replicas in their park. This is one of those trees. Kind of looks like a monster face on the tree. I liked this one too. :)
We also saw some other cute wildlife. Can you spot it?
Yep! It's a turtle.
There were also several water fowl. I believe this one is a heron.
One of the smaller gators we saw.
We also saw this hornets nest. Capt. Mike didn't get too close though. We all appreciated that.
It was a fun tour and we would highly recommend it. Before we headed home the kids had to try a little gator wrestling. Bradley jumped right on the head!
Daniel decided a head on approach was best too.
Eliza trying her leg as floss!
Nathan, "This one? This is the one?"
"Is anyone else in here?!"
Daniel, Eliza and Nathan
