Cajun Encounters Swamp Boat Tour
November 8, 2024
Brandy and I took a tour through the Honey Island Swamp on day four of our trip to New Orleans.
Cajun Encounters is a tourism company based in New Orleans, offering a wide variety of touring options, from bus tours, ghost tours and distillery tours, but what really caught my attention was their VIP tour of Honey Island Swamp.
Our tour was scheduled to begin at 9:30 with a check-in time 30 minutes prior. With a 30+ minute drive ahead of us, we left just before 8:30 Thursday morning. As we pulled out of the driveway of our AirBnB, the rain started falling, lightly at first, then getting heavier and heavier as we got on I-10.
We quickly found ourselves crossing Lake Ponchatrain on the freeway, then soon after reaching dry land again, we were off the highway in the city of Slidell. After about another 10 minutes or so of driving, we found ourselves at the West Pearl Bridge, a well-worn, non-functioning drawbridge that leads to southern Mississippi. The Cajun Encounters swamp tour location is just before you reach that bridge.
Check In and Wait
We queued up at the register and checked in. We were each given a green rubber wristband while others were given other colors, such as purple and gold, red, white, and brown. We were told that at about 9:15, they would begin getting us ready to depart for our tours under a pavilion right outside the doors.
We went out to the pavilion to wait and saw a small boardwalk leading to a small dock where one of the small tour boats was parked. We moseyed on over to check things out and saw a plaque describing the Whiskey Tree, a meeting place for prohibition-era moonshiners looking to stay away from the law’s prying eyes.
At 9:15, a young lady started grouping everyone under the pavilion by their wristband color. There were seven people, including us, with green wristbands. Not long after we were grouped, our skipper, Captain Dave, showed up and escorted us down a different dock where we boarded his little 12-seat flat bottomed boat. We got a quick safety spiel and off we went.
Old Pearl River
The river we traveled on is the Old Pearl River, a 444 mile river originating in Neshoba County, Mississippi and meanders all the way down to Lake Borgne, a lagoon of the Gulf of Mexico. The south end of the rivers serves as the border between Louisiana and Mississippi.
Within the river lies Honey Island, the namesake for the swamp we explored on this day.
As we made our way slowly up the river, our guide gave us information about the river, how it was formed, how the geology of the area shaped the land and things of that nature. As he talked, the rain became more steady giving us a fairly significant soaking.
It wasn’t long before we spied a gator poking his eyes out of the water to watch us pass slowly by. Dave guessed, based on the distance from the eyes to the tip of the creature’s snout, that it was about an 8 foot alligator we saw.
Just as we were about to turn a corner, we spotted a stark white egret perched on the remains of a downed cypress. The snowy plumage was a shocking contrast to the earthy tones surrounding it.
Once we broke free of the no-wake zone, Dave gunned the throttle, the nose of the boat rose and we were gone.
We approached a fork in the river and hung a left, creeping closer the aforementioned Honey Island. We stopped a couple of times along the way as Dave drew some gators closer to our vessel, feeding them compressed protein pellets. The little nuggets of meat would float in the water and the gators would glide up and snatch them from the surface of the water.
Dave then took us to a nearby field of water lilies where a little gator was hiding out. He came out from the cover of the lily pads floating in the water and Dave obliged him with his own treat.
Wild Hogs, Raccoons and Peaceful Drifting
We backed out of the lily field and started heading down a narrow waterway to where a couple of the larger boats were already hanging out. As we idled nearby waiting for them to make room for us, the sounds of grunting wildlife could be heard. The speculation was made that there were wild hogs deeper in the bayou.
As the other boats evacuated the area, we started making our way in and, sure enough, a small family of four hogs, one large momma and three babies, were there rooting around in the shallow, muddy water. Across the waterway were a handful of racoons pretty much doing the same thing, rooting around looking for food.
The animals were all clearly comfortable with the boats being in the area as when we approached, there was no alarm and they stayed put, keeping on about their business.
The occupants of the boat snapped plenty of pics of the fauna roaming around. The momma hog worked her way over to the other side of the boat where the racoons were and that was enough to get the trash pandas to scatter. Wild hogs have a bad reputation in the bayou.
The hog vacillated between the shores, each time she made her way back over to the babies, the racoons would reclaim their spots. Many of them stood on hind legs, seeming to beg for the treats they knew Dave had on him.
After a while, we backed out to where we’d gone in and started making our way down a smaller waterway parallel to the main river.
This small river was very still, small clover-shaped leaves carpeting the surface of the water. If we weren’t in a boat, you’d think it was solid land.
The cypress trees towered above, most of them surrounded by what we were told were called cypress knees- small formations protruding up from the roots of the large trees, just poking out of the water. There is no definitive answer as to the function of these formations.
As we glided along, we took note of how remarkably quiet and peaceful it was. The only sounds to be heard were the distant calls of birds. We were going so slow that there was no engine noise, nor any lapping of water against the aluminum hull of the watercraft.
We came up to the aforementioned Whiskey Tree and we were given the tale about how the moonshiners would use the tree as a meeting place to trade wares and, apparently, sample each others’ goods.
We continued along near the island and as we were about to be emptied back onto the main river, we came across a couple of raccoons hiding out amongst an expansive exposed root system. As we approached their lair, they emerged and basically begged for food. Dave handed a raccoon one of the protein pellets- like, from hand to hand, not thrown into the water then retrieved by the critter. Meanwhile, the raccoon’s compatriot was hanging out near us at the front of the boat. He was pretty close to jumping into the craft with us.
We left the little guys Dave opened her up again and we flew back to the dock where the boat was tied up and we disembarked.
We went back to the gift shop and picked up a few trinkets to memorialize our trip, then we headed back to the van and made our way back to New Orleans.
City Park and a Quick Lunch
When we got back into town, we took a quick drive through part of City Park, where I had been two days prior. I showed Brandy the areas I’d explored on that day and we drove around a bit more before deciding on a place to go eat lunch.
Brandy selected Toups’ Meatery, a charcuterie-based restaurant where their meat board seemed to be their main specialty. We ordered that and a side order of cornbread.
The plate was brought to us and was filled with an assortment of different small bites, including a boudin ball, a quenelle of chicken liver mousse, a tall order of cracklins, a hunk of focaccia, some sausage, and more.
Most of the food was pretty good, a lot of it was very rich and could only be handled in small doses so it’s good that there were only bites of each item.
After we’d had our fill, we hopped back in the van and made our way back to the AirBnB for the night.
Conclusion
The swamp boat tour was definitely worth the admission price and, if given the chance, I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Seeing all kinds of new ecosystems was a thrill to me and helped get the experience back to the idea I’d had in my head before the trip.
I did take plenty of pictures and video on the trip, all of which can be found on my Photo Diary.
I will post an overall thoughts on New Orleans next, then that will be followed by a Friday evening date night for me and Brandy, stay tuned for those.
-Phil