The Steamtug Blog

Look out!! There’s an alligator on the port quarter! Which is worse than a clingon on the starboard bow! Grumps (Ian) and Whackie Jackie are here to visit me from Geelong, Australia, and we did an airboat ride in the Atchafalaya basin looking for gators… and oh boy, did we find some!

The Atchafalya swamp, is the largest swamp and wetland in the United States. Located in central, South Louisiana, it is 260,000 acres of iconic cyprus-tupelo and the largest contiguous tracts of coastal cyprus in the USA.

We drove 2 hours East of Lake Charles, to Henderson swamp to find the famous seafood restaurant, Pat’s seafood wharf. We had morning tea on their deck over looking the river. When we dropped some fish food in the river, hundreds of little fish came up to snack. And then we saw the first one… like jaws lurking in the background, it was Fred the snub nosed crocodile. Oh, I was later corrected, that this was in fact an alligators! We though Fred was big, but not compared to what we would see later in the day!

We drove along the levee bank about a mile, to Basin boat tours, who run airboat rides out in the swamp. I always wanted to try riding an airboat after seeing them as a kid in “Flipper” about a dolphin in the Florida everglades. These boats only draw a few inches of water when going at speed, and can go over almost anything on the river… logs, sandbars, vegetation etc, because they don’t have a propeller or rudder in the water. I always imagines they would be impossible to steer without a keel or rudder, but was surprised how maneuverable the boat was, with that big block chevy V8 pushing so much air behind!

At $50 per person, you hope you are going to get your money’s worth. But after the 1.5 hour trip out, with some high speed running, stopping to admire the quiet and beauty in the dense swamp, and rustling up some gator action, with them swimming over the side of the boat close enough to pat, if you were game… left us feeling it was money well spent, and I would recommend it and might even do it again when YOU come over to visit me!

The little cajun boat man, sure talked funny, but knew all the gators by name and called them over with some bribery of fresh chicken breast. All had French names, being cajun, and Suzette was an impressive sight swimming beside our boat, until Henry (pronounced On-ree… French style) came over as a 12′ monster! Just what you need to dispose of cats, naughty children, lawyers, politicians and your boss!

We headed back to Pat’s seafood wharf for a cajun lunch, and all tired happy campers snoozing in the car all the way home. It was the best day out we have had in a long time!