#atozchallenge...G-Gators-Gators Everywhere...

Last year at about this time my daughter Christie and I took a trip to Louisiana to Abbeville and stayed at the most charming RV park by the name of Betty's RV. But that's another story. After arriving late on Saturday night and oversleeping on Sunday morning and missing out on the Swamp tour activity we decided we would go Monday and make a day of it.

We got up early, got the dogs fed and walked. Ourselves fed and ready,got directions on how to get to the Champagne's Cajun Swamp tour near Lafayette and off we went as it was about an hour away. I sure am glad Christie was driving or we would have not gotten there for the first tour of the day.

Great sign on the front door

Champagne's Cajun Swamp tour was great.  If you paid in cash it was $45 for the two of us. I paid cash. Christie and I sat in the bow of the flat bottom boat. It held about 25 people. Our boat was full to the max and we were on our way.

Our guide Paul was a Cajun native and grew up in the swamps and was very knowledgeable about this particular swamp its history and the flora and fauna of the area. 
We saw some fantastic wildlife, owls, cranes, herons and gators. Small gators and big gators. When I say big gators I mean BIG gators. We saw one that was at least 16 feet long. Everywhere we looked we could see gators. 

We saw a lot of duck hunting blinds. Many looked like they were on their last leg but our guide assured us they were still viable. Close to the swamp was a 

preserve for the Roseate Spoonbill which was in its mating season. There were lots of photographers with their long lenses trying to get a good picture of them.  The noise from them was deafening there were so many.

Not far from the preserve was a wooden walkway over the swamp that was about a quarter mile long.  It was quite nice and afforded a good view of swamp life. It was quite interesting and a good environmental lesson on the care of our wet lands. 


Christie and I headed out after the swamp tour back to Betty's RV park, stopping in Lafayette at the Blu Basil for a late lunch. Some of the best Vietnamese food I have

eaten.

4:30 every day is happy hour at Betty's and we had to get our dish ready and let the dogs out so we needed to hurry back and get cracking. 

The gathering spot at Betty's, oh what fun we have!

If you are in the area, you don't want to miss staying at Betty's, the best in Louisiana hospitality!