Ooohhhhh my goodness.
Today was AWESOME. There are no
other words to describe it.
We met Coerte (pronounced “Kurt”) and his son on Exit 121
off of I-10 on the porch at the Atchafalaya Visitor’s Center. There were several of us waiting – including
a couple and their grandson from Wichita, Kansas. Small world.
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| Coerte |
Up pulls Coerte and son and their two high speed swamp
boats. After a tiny bit of organization,
we proceeded with them to a public dock just below the highway. They were friendly and funny men – Coerte was
(we guessed) in his mid-eighties and his son was sixty-two. Coerte told us that he had a Master’s Degree
in Geology and still consults occasionally.
He does these swamp tours in his retirement for fun and to keep himself
sharp.
We rode in Coerte’s boat which had a net about 3 feet high
circling the entire surface. I asked him
if it was there to keep the critters out or the people in. He then proceeded to tell me that it was to
protect me from the flying carp. I
thought he was pulling my leg, but more on that later. The boat had room for seven seated
people. We rode with a young couple from
Germany who were very quiet – but taking lots of
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| Under I-10 |
pictures. The family from Wichita and another
grandmother and her two grandsons from Texas rode with Coerte’s son in his
boat.
We backed out of the dock area and the two men proceeded to
take us on a two hour tour of the basin that was one of the coolest things I’ve
done. We saw several Osprey in their
nests. One was flying high above us with
a fish in its talons. All of them were
talking. We saw great blue heron, we saw
regular blue heron, we saw these furry, brown peaceful creatures that looked
like a cross between a beaver and a river otter (Coypu – a.k.a. river rat –
Coerte says they taste good), we saw snowy egrets, we saw snakes, we saw frogs,
coot ducks (Coerte called them Jesus Ducks because they walked on water), black-bellied
whistling ducks, we saw dragonflies, we saw tall, regal cypress, duck blinds,
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| Small Alligator on a Log |
houseboats, fishermen and yes, we saw alligators.
Not only did we see a really BIG alligator sunning himself
on a log at almost the first area we stopped at, but we also saw a smaller one
back in the recesses of the swamp.
Coerte’s son had a big net with him (He used it mostly to pick up trash
that he saw in and around the water.
He’d reach out with the net, pick up the trash and then proceed to lecture
loudly about people and their disregard and disrespect for nature. Love that man for his passionate and personal
fight against trash in the swamp!) But one
time, he used it to catch two baby alligators and a one year old alligator for
all of us to examine up close and personal.
We passed those alligators around
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| Alligator Walking |
holding them, examining them up close,
talking, telling stories and taking pictures for about 10-15 minutes of the
tour.
Coerte and son were characters. They were very comfortable with strangers and
conducted their business as if we were all sitting in their living room
watching TV. They both had their cell
phones and took phone calls when there was a signal of any worth and one could
get through. Cell service, as you can
imagine, was spotty in the swamp.
“Hello, this is Coerte,” he would say. “Well, I’m out in the middle of the swamp
right now giving a tour, can you call back around 2:30 and I’ll get you in the
book?” A pause. “What’s your name? What?
John. OK, John. I’ll make sure to give you first chance when
you call back on the boat tomorrow.” He
hung up. “Some people,” he then remarked
to the
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| Coerte's Son |
group. “They think we have a
storefront or something.” It was like
being out in the middle of the swamp with your favorite uncle.
Coerte had several good, well-seasoned lines. “Now, you’ll notice I don’t have a compass,”
he said. “Do you know how I can tell which
direction we’re headed?” We, of course,
all dutifully swiveled in our seats to see.
He held up his finger, licked it and pointed it forward. “We’re going
that way.”
At one point, and in chase of that smaller gator that we saw
mucking around in some tightly spaced trees, he maneuvered the boat into a
pretty tight spot and
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| Sam and an Alligator Selfie |
we were all slightly concerned that we wouldn’t actually
get back out. After a little wiggling,
grabbing of trees and branches and back and forth with the motor we were
finally freed. “See?” he said, “Even at
my age I can still get the girls back in the bushes."
He was generous with information and didn’t ever say
anything that he didn’t know for sure. I
asked him after seeing one of the alligators dip into the water how long they
could stay down there. “As long as they
want,” he said. “I’m not gonna argue
with them.”
The whole trip he was being teased by his son and some of
the other boaters about the net around his boat. (When we would meet another boat there was
always some friendly back and forth banter – just like
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| Lovin' the Boat Ride |
walking down a street in
a small town.) “Mark my words,” he would
say, “there is going to be a fatality someday here. One of them carp is going to jump up and
knock someone off their boat and they are gonna drown.” To prove his point, he kept running the boat
in circles periodically to see if he could get a carp to jump. And I’ll be danged if he didn’t do just that. The carp was big, jumped high and right behind our boat where there was no
net. Unfortunately, those of us in the
boat were the only ones who saw it, so his son still thinks Coerte is pulling
his leg and we are now all in on it.
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| Deep in the Swamp |
The Atchafalaya Experience was a definite cool ride that we
all enjoyed. It’s a little too early to
say – but it is definitely in the running for #1 on this trip.
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| Oak Alley |
After we said goodbye to Coerte (He got a hug from me –
somehow he now feels like family), we headed down to tour Oak Alley Plantation
which is south of Baton Rouge and east of Morgan City and “sort of” on our way
back to the houseboat. Using Google
Maps, we were able to navigate some backroads and save ourselves a little time
getting to all these places. We arrived
around 2:30 and were ready for something a little more than trail mix and fruit
jerky. After refueling in the Plantation
Café, we stood in line (that’s right….stood in line) to tour the home.
Oak Alley was built by a sugarcane farmer very early on in
the South’s history. The best thing
about this particular plantation is the stand of perfectly spaced, ancient oak
trees that line the quarter
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| 300 Year Old Oak Tree |
mile long avenue in front of the house and leading
down to the edge of the Mississippi.
These twenty eight oak trees are some of the most massive, and most
beautiful I have seen. It’s what Ms.
Austin would definitely call “a fair prospect.”
The Foundation that owns the plantation has recently created
a six cabin exhibit featuring reproductions of the 20 slave cabins that existed
in the rear of the house. There cabins housed
just under 60 slaves at one time – typically having two families and as many as
10 people living in one building.
This exhibit does an excellent job explaining the life of a
slave on a sugar plantation. In one is a
wonderful tribute to the names of the 150 or so total slaves that had lived at
one time on the plantation and credits them with the hard work that they did to
make the farm as prosperous as it
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| Blue Catfish |
was.
It’s the best representation of the intelligent and hardworking minds,
hands and backs that supported the economy of the south.
After that brief diversion we drove backroads to the
houseboat and the boys spent some more time hanging off the back and
fishing. Isaac caught the most –
including his very first, unassisted catfish that was probably the biggest fish
that I have ever seen caught by a simple pole and worm.
After that successful evening, the whole family hopped in
the hot tub on the upper deck to stare at the stars and enjoy our final evening
on the boat together. I hear that there
is some early morning fishing planned….I might just skip that part.
