Honey, I'm in the Swamp!

...in the Honey Swamp, that is.  Or more technically, in the Pearl River.  Anyways, it's a swamp tour!  Always good, although I have to say that, based on gator sightings, this one was disappointing compared to the Champagne one out of Breaux Bridge/Lafayette... (I also liked the "driver" on the Champagne one better too - he was convincingly full of it and made us all laugh!  It was just more fun with more sightings!)

 An interesting little fish that got scooped out of the river and placed in an aquarium for us all to ogle.  Hope he made it and got put back in...?!

 I think this was THE ONE really good gator sighting of the whole trip...  He's a beauty, but...only one?!!!  Poo!

 Same guy, handsome profile...

 A different outfit chums for their gators.  And while I was disappointed not to see more of my favorite friends, I rejected that company for that very reason.  As I've said before, I think the same saying applies to the gators that applies to the bears back home (and everywhere!):  A fed ____ is a dead _____!!!!!!  When you alter wild animals' behaviors regarding humans and food by feeding them, you are basically training them to ultimately attack FOR food!!!  It doesn't happen with the first mouthful, so the perpetrators usually get away with their destructive feedings scot-free!  It's the innocent person boating or hiking by that gets mauled, molested, and possibly killed because of the "training" over time!!  And of course, the animal will be hunted down at that point and killed as well.

 I love my gators, and I'm taking pictures of this bad practice, but don't for a second think I condone it!!!

 Other folks on a boat like ours.  Our driver also hurried us along the river - to get us to the swampier part, where we toodled along, sight-seeing slowly.

 A few houses lined the river (and yes, they were prepared to either float or were raised way high up in the air already, just in case!).

 Alligator #2 (and as I recall, that was it!  TWO gators!  What?!  I want my money back!  But wait, that's probably why the other outfit baited the gators with marshmallows...  Never mind!  It was a pretty outing.  And sometimes the gators show, and sometimes I guess they don't...).  This guy was pretty little - maybe a 3-footer or so.  The first one was more like 7 or 8 feet, I think.

 A couple guys gutting dinner or something.  

 And some amazing person on the boat actually spotted this snake in the branches on the side of the swamp!!!!  Our driver scooted us over to see better.  Still too many branches in the way but a cool spotting nonetheless!  Looks non-venomous to me, probably some kind of water snake.

See?  I'm not the ONLY one taking pictures as we enter the swamp part!!!

 Love the swamp trees (cypress) and wild iris.

 Just different swamp scenes...

 oooo, we're not alone...!!

 Nope!  Definitely not alone!!  So that's our boat driver, but who's that behind the tree???

 Here Piggy, Piggy, Piggy!  Apparently EVERYone likes marshmallows!!

So, it's kind of crazy that this supposedly more eco-aware company is feeding the wild boars...   I know they're already hunted, already considered potentially dangerous, and heck, they're already pigs, so...!?!  I dunno...

OINK!!!  (ie, hand over the marshmallows and no one gets hurt...?!)  

 Almost back to the start.  We pass under a cool bridge.  I asked Bill what kind it was - it's called a lift bridge.  On some, one end will lift up the whole span at an angle.  On others, like this one, the center piece gets lifted by supports on both sides of the water.  This particular model looks to have been around awhile...

 Ironically, the prettiest views I found on this adventure were on the road, near the swamp tour company.  This was the awesome scene from one side of the bridge.

And here's the other...