New Orleans 2012

Our friends Cindy and Mike met us at the New Orleans airport and after driving a few minutes they surprised us with the news that we were not headed to their home near Baton Rouge, but we would go straight to their boat and take a 30 minute boat ride up the bayous to get to their 'camp' on the edge of Lake Ponchartrain. If you look at the map above you will see New Orleans to the south and we then drove north 26 miles across Lake Ponchartrain (which incidentally is 45 miles wide), then another several miles west where their boat was waiting to take us on our swamp romp! They had dropped food supplies out to the cabin the day before, so it was just a matter of putting our suitcase in the boat and going along for the ride. Cypress trees dripping with spanish moss lined the bayou as we sped along checking out the 'camps' along the way. Many of them were destroyed in one hurricane or another. When you look at the map and see how close the Gulf of Mexico is to New Orleans (which they say is technically 4' below sea level) and know that during hurricanes the water from the gulf pushes into Lake Ponchartrain you can understand how water is forced down the rivers and bayous that feed off it. Up to six feet of water passed under the cabin we are staying in. Thankfully it is 7 feet off the ground! Mostly the cabins are used as weekenders, so it has been delightfully quiet here during the week. Apart from the odd boat going out to check crab or shrimp pots, the only sounds we hear are the woodpeckers and other birds (ones that I recognise have been red cardinals and a blue jay).

Straight from airport to boat

Minutes later Cindy and I are drinking 'hard' lemonade in the front of the boat

Typical cabin (camp) on the bayou

See the Spanish Moss hanging from this Cypress tree?

Where we spent our 3 days in the swamp!

View from our porch - Lake Ponchartrain is to the left

Red-Headed Woodpeckers taken from the porch

You get around 20 shrimp per lb i.e. for $5.50

Local seafood prices

These crabs were $59 a bushel

Yesterday we took the boat to join another couple (Diane and Ben) for lunch at a seafood restaurant (see map) about 30 mins boat ride from the cabin. The six of us met several years ago at a music festival in Arkansas, and although Cindy and Mike met us there a second time two years ago, Diane was undergoing chemo and they couldn't make it, so it was nice to all catch up again today. Just as we were leaving the restaurant we noticed some dark clouds and thought we may be able to get home before the rain, but we had to take shelter under a freeway for 10 mins and wait for the blue skies to return - which they did. Cindy and I sat in the front seats of the boat and as we sped up the bayous, the scenery was amazing - as was the wildlife. We pointed out herons, egrets, ducks as they crossed our path, and all up I counted 15 alligators that submerged as we got closer. I wish they weren't so fast, as they were gone before I could get my camera focussed!