Maritimes: Day 1: Zam's Swamp Tours

By the time we got to Zam's for the swamp tour it seemed we had already learned and seen so much. Our day had started at 3am back at Mystic and upon arrival in New Orleans we hit the road. First stop was a levee on the banks of the Mississippi for lunch and our first look at the river. Then we went across the road to check out Ormand Plantation and the different moss species of the south. Just within these first couple of hours we started to get a sense of the potential power of the river. On the way to Zam's I fought my heavy eyelids to look at scenery I had never seen before...cypress swamps came right up to the edge of the road and black piles left over from sugar cane processing smoked on the edge of the fields.

Zam's Swamp tours is located in Kraemer, on Bayou Boeuf. Our wonderful guide, Derek, took us on an hour or so tour demonstrating an incredible knowledge of his bayou and a great sense of humor accentuated by his thick accent.

It was difficult to believe that I had been in Mystic that morning as we made our way along the water. I was completely happy to see the bayou from the vantage point of the boat. The edges were swampy and it was clear that it would be a very different experience to explore by foot. We frequently saw Mississippi alligators, South American nutria (large rat-like animals), and turtles.

We learned all the details of alligator hunting from Derek. They trap them by hanging a line from a tree branch which has a hook with bait on one end. It has to have enough slack so that the alligator doesn't simply snap the line but drags it to the bottom while it swallows the bait. Once the hook lodges in its stomach there's no chance it'll come out. At that point the hunter will shoot the gator in the head and bring it in.

Most of the alligators we saw were pretty small (approx. 4ft.) but right before we turned around to head back we spotted one that was at least 8 feet long.

Once we got back on land, we got the chance to pet some of the other animals on the grounds. In the back there were rabbits, chickens, and alligators of all ages.

I realized the cute fuzzy ones would probably grow up to feed the alligators that were kept in the back. These were the huge seemingly ancient ones collected from the bayou years before. The first one we saw looked like a statue until it started to hiss. It's one thing to watch it on TV and another thing to stand only a couple feet away when it made that noise on the other side of the fence.

In a shed by one side was a collection of gator heads that had been abandoned before they could get fixed up to sell. And even further back was another pile of jaws and skulls. It was cool to see them up close without the danger of those jaws coming back to life. Some of our friends may or may not be receiving gator tooth necklaces for Christmas this year.