The Safari

October 5th/09 - Pecan Island, LA
Mileage: 123 km
Total mileage: 4,686 km

We are camped tonight in an RV Park in Pecan Island. Again, Pecan Island is not really an island, it is a ridge which was pushed up in the middle of the marsh. One of the locals told us this ridge which the town is on, was pushed up by an ancient hurricane.

Travelling and camping thus far in Louisiana and on the Bolivar Peninsula has been tough. Services either don't exist having been destroyed, or are only half way built back, possibly functional, possibly not. I just keep telling myself while travelling through here that we have it a whole lot easier than these people have had it over the past year.

These last two RV Parks have not really been RV parks. They seem to have been set up in haste for contractors and don't have washrooms or showers. Yes, Princess is getting a little rank again. All the contractors have their self contained units.

Tough start to the morning. No coffee...(or breakfast, or bathroom :( ) Johnsons Bayou's store and gas station had both been blown away. Cycled 50 km to Cameron. Gas station had been rebuilt and was functioning. Most other businesses in town were half way there. The two restaurants were functioning from trailers. Drank up, had a bite to eat and continued on.

Miles and miles of beautiful yard sites with empty cement pads, or empty pilings where houses used to be. A few have been rebuilt, most have not. A local told us that a lot of people won't rebuild because new building codes make it cost prohibitive. As a result a lot of these lots now have 5th wheels or trailers on them.

Grave yards were not untouched either. Deby and I cycled by several where the graves were damaged, some of the caskets had obviously floated up, lost forever in the marsh.

On the lighter side, we stopped at the library at Grand Chenier. The library consisted of a double wide. We stopped here to ask where the store was. We conversed with the staff for a while as they were very interested in our trip and shared information about their area. One of the ladies ended up taking our photo for the town paper.

We continued on for 50 km between Grand Chenier and Pecan Island. This part of the ride was totally through marsh including the Rockefeller Sate Wildlife Refuge. Absolutely beautiful, bayous throughout and canals along side the road.

Something you don't see or hear from a car are the alligators. We saw alligators in the ditch beside us and constantly heard them pounding through the reeds and into the water as we passed by. There are lots of them. The staff at the library told us we would see them today because on warm clear days they come out to sun themselves.

Turtles jumping off of every log, snakes slithering, birds of every size and color. It was like a safari. The swamp surely is an awesome place. Just as people fall in love with the desert, I can see how people fall in love with the swamp.