Today we had arranged to go on an Airboat tour around the Atchafalaya Swamp or Bayou, apparently swamps can also be called Bayou’s, the difference seems to be if the water is moving or not. A swamp is a wetland that is forested, a bayou is a body of water that is extremely slow moving with a poorly defined shoreline and can be a marshy lake or wetland! Anyway we went to pick up lunch then drove round to McGee’s landing which is where we had arranged to do the boat ride. It turns out that we were the only two people on the tour so we set off towards the Cyprus Forest, this is stunning and looks lovely although it can be quite dramatic, the water level has dropped about 10 feet in the last 2 months but is still higher than normal at this time of year. They actually dredge the main waterways but leave the sides alone. We went through the the forest and saw a couple of Cormorants. The trees are strange as they are fat at the bottom and get thinner as they go up, these are only about 60 years old but they can grow for a few hundred years and are great because they don’t rot and insects don’t like them. From there we went around the basin and drove under the motorway in what looks like a massive lake, you can’t really see the levee’s from the water but earlier in the year when the water level was high the water got to within a couple of feet of the top of the levee which is hard to imagine as that looks like it is probably more like 20 feet higher not 10. Then we went in search of alligators (or ‘gators as they call them). It is the time of year when the young start hatching, they are about a foot long when they are born and grow at about a foot a year, a good way to tell the length of a ‘gator is the length of his nose to his eyes in inches is the length of the ‘gator in feet. Today is the start of the hunting season which seems a bit strange considering it is when the young hatch but luckily it is only a month and they are considered a pest. We saw a couple swimming around they look quite gentle but we didn’t see their teeth! Then it was time to come back and we went through an area which was covered in lilies, it looked like we were driving over the land but we weren’t, all too soon it we were back and it was over although we both had a great time. We decided to stay and have our lunch at the landing as it was such a nice view, but we decided to eat it in the car rather than at the picnic tables due to the size of the flying things. After lunch we set off for Magnolia Mound Plantation, a different one to the many we have already visited. We didn’t bother with the house tour as it wasn’t dissimilar to others we have been round but we did walk around the grounds. Originally the plantation was 900 acres which we now know is the Louisiana land grant of which 5 fronted the Mississippi River. The main house was built around 1791 but was expanded and renovated between 1802 -1805 To became the seat of a landowner. We went up to the big house and could look in the windows, so we got to see what was inside and Chris could actually take photo’s through the windows which was great. Next door was a reconstructed open hearth kitchen and of course a Pigeonnier, we walked through the grounds and past what was left of a sugar press to the Overseers House which was built around 1871 which was virtually opposite the double slave cabin that was built around 1830, walking up the path brought us to the new big house which was built in 1907 rather than modernise the old house this one was built and has electricity so is used as an administration building which meant we couldn’t go in. We then drove to Baton Rouge and it is obvious that we are heading towards the major areas as the roads are definitely getting busier, we didn’t really see much of Baton Rouge as we drove in but we have a great room with a balcony overlooking the Mississippi river.
