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Published: August 23rd 2014
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FINALLY, A BOAT RIDE We decided to spend two nights here at Atchafalaya Landing, at Henderson, Louisiana, seeing as there were two double beds for us all to use. We are enclosing a short clip of today's highlight. Our skipper and guide is the local Crocodile Dundee, aka Alligator Tucker. He is the proprietor of Atchafalaya Landing, the cabins, and the small pub on site, Turtle Bar, and what an extraordinary character he is. His airboat swamp tour was absolutely fantastic. He's been feeding some of the alligators in the Atchafalaya basin bayou for many years, and they all come swimming when he is in the area and calls to them, sometimes in French, and splashes the surface of the water. Raw chicken also entices them of course. All of his "friends" are named, and while he sometimes is on the receiving end of a surprise gator nip, they are usually quite docile. You will see him in action in the You Tube clip.
The rest of our day was lazy as can be. We had thought about a 27 mile ride along the levee to Lake Fausse Pointe State Park in the afternoon, but before we managed to
get on our way, a huge thunderstorm closed in and entertained us for a couple of hours with thunder and lightning, capping off the show with a short sprinkling of rain. Instead, sitting on the deck outside the Turtle Cafe, we uploaded yesterday's video, and inhaled wafts of venison gumbo, Tucker's free Thursday night dinner for anyone wanting to come to the pub in the making.
Ahh, the pub, where last night we spent an hour before second hand smoke got to us and we had to walk back down the ramp to our Cabinette. Tonight though, there weren't many smokers, and with windows open, we actually thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the locals and savoring Cajun spicy deer tenderloin and deer sausage gumbo on rice, with coleslaw. Apparently, no-one eats beef in these parts. Seafood and game are the staples, always with rice as a side. No complaints here, for my first venison experience! Now back to the locals. First, the pub may as well have been Cheers. Anyone who entered the small, dark 20 seat watering hole was greeted by shouts of Bill! Danny! Everyone chews the fat regardless of who is visiting, and due to censoring laws,
I'm not able to repeat any of the conversations we had in our family oriented blog! No-one, and surprisingly and predominantly the women, is afraid of potty mouth, and the highly frequent use of heavy expletives was par for the course! I learned some new words tonight for sure. They'd outdo most of those cheesy reality TV shows like Swamp People, Duck Dynasty with their language. But, you couldn't ask for a friendlier, more welcoming bunch of people. It was incredibly apparent that everyone looks out for each other, and they talked in pride about living in hurricane country and not being afraid of the weather. There was no doubt that this small, tightknit swamp community would come together in times of severe weather crises and protect not only themselves, but their homes and their environment too. We loved this place (perhaps not the crickets and mudflappers so much), and definitely recommend it to anyone travelling through these parts. And if you do venture here, the bayou swamp tour is a must. Check out the accolades on Trip Advisor - we will be adding our own praise too.
Before we close with the You Tube 6 minute video link,
here are a few things we heard today that made us smile....
"It's not my circus not my monkeys" - referring to another company and their staff
"The only thing we don't use is the squeal" - referring to butchering any game animal
"That m___f__r is a hardworker, if you can ever find him" - referring to their own staff
"Chafala" - how to pronounce Atchafalaya
"Hi, I'm Dorothy (name changed) and I'm the local Queer. Nice to meet you two m__f__rs from Canada!" referring to a very nice lady we met at the bar
"Those guys are amateurs. They have to shoot a gator in order to pet it" - Tucker referring to Swamp People TV show gator hunters
"That's not a knife, this is a knife" - Tucker referring to Crocodile Dundee as he pulls out of his back pocket an 18 inch switchblade - see photo
"Baby" - referring to addressing every woman
Enclosed are 44 photos, and here is the You Tube Link...