Champagne's Cajun Swamp Tours

As many of you know, we're members of boondockerswelcome.com, which is a network of private homeowners who let you stay in their driveways or fields for free. We're also members of Harvest Hosts, which is a network of businesses that let you stay at their places overnight. It's a way to bring in extra business because the RVers are encouraged to spend at least $20 at their stores. Offering their parking lots gives advantages to both RVers looking for a place to overnight, and the business.

Our next stop was at a Harvest Host location in Breaux Bridge, LA. Champagne's Swamp Tours gives tours of the swamp at Lake Martin. The area where we stayed was a huge field under the old oaks across the street. There was one other RV that pulled in for the night, a fellow Cougar owner, a lovely couple from Washington state.

We're the camper on the right

Our captain on the tour boat, Jonathan, may have been a little guy but he's got a head full of knowledge about the wildlife and various vegetation in the Cypress Swamp.

Our captain, Jonathan

The first thing we learned was that the word swamp came from an Indian word meaning flooded forest, and bayou means slow moving river. 

Lake Martin's Cypress Swamp includes about 10,000 acres of protected cypress-tupelo swamp and botomland hardwood forest habitat. It is a world-class wading bird rookery, where thousands of pairs of herons, egrets, and other water birds nest. It is also the year-round home to over 200 species of resident, wintering, and migratory birds, as well as over 1,200 alligators.

This season of the year with the cooler temperatures, the alligators are very lethargic. They brumate, not hibernate, coming to the surface just for air. They will become more active on warmer days, but the day we were there was quite cool. We were fortunate enough to see a few resting in the weeds.

Alligator in the weeds

Cypress trees live an about of 600 years, but many make it to 1,200 years with the oldest being over 2,600 years old. They have a long tap root that extends down about the same distance as the tree is tall. They also produce vertical protrusions above the water, along their horizontal underwater roots known as knees. It is thought they help give air to the submerged roots. Some of the trees had dozens of them, some only a few. Some of the knees were attached at the base of the tree and some extended out into the water, not seeming to be part of the tree.

This Cypress tree is about 500 years old

All the trees are covered with hanging Spanish Moss. We were told that Spaniards stuffed their pillows and mattresses with it but it contains chiggers, hence the saying "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". There are many theories for the origin of this saying and this is one possibility from local lore.

We saw many species of birds including Great White Egret, Blue Heron, Cormorant, Anhinga, and several species of ducks. At one point we observed about 30 buzzards circling an area not too far off to our right.

The sun seems to make this Egret glow

Turtles resting on a log.
Notice the "knee" on the left at the base of the tree.

Blue Heron

This mound is an alligator nest

Salvinia is an invasive plant with tiny hairs on its surface.

Scientists have developed a material called "nanofur"

that mimics these hairs and is used to clean up oil spills.

Water mark from a recent flood.
You can see one of the tree's "knees" at its base in the center.
There are more around the trees in the background.