Cajun Pride Swamp is a private swamp, near the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and at the southeast corner of Maurepas Swamp Wildlife management area. Traffic wise, it is near the intersection of interstate 10 and 55, an easy 30-40 minute drive from downtown New Orleans.
We had our boat tour of Cajun Pride swamp on Sunday, March 8th, near noon time. It was a beautiful sunny day. Even before we left the dock, we got a small alligator lingering by our boat. Some people stretched out to take pictures of it, prompting Captain Tom of our 40 person boat, and our tour guide, to warn us that it was dangerous as the alligator could jump out of water to bite.
There were three boats, each full of tourists, leaving the dock at the same time. Captain Tom stayed put for a few minutes, letting other boats leave first, so we could have a quiet bayou to ourselves later and better chance to see alligators and other wildlife.
This is a densely wooded swamp. We heard and saw birds - flying, chirping. I also spotted a woodpecker.
"You were really lucky today - so many gators come out to enjoy the Sun! There was none during yesterday's tour", Captain Tom told the group. He suddenly stopped the slow moving boat and asked us to look at the left hand side of the boat, while throwing some marshmallows toward a resting alligator.
We were really luck that day - a Raccoon was scavenging near three alligators! One gator was swimming in the water, one resting on a fallen branch, and the 3rd on the stump near the shore. We were really excited hoping to see alligator swallowing the raccoon! Tom tried to a few times to lure the alligators and the Raccoon together - in fact the alligator on the branch turned around to face the raccoon really close while the raccoon was risking its life to get the food.
It was really exciting - see video below for an episode of this encounter !!
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| A cautious Raccoon |
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| A raccoon was waiting for Tom's bait |
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| Raccoon trying to have the bait before Alligators! Note that the alligator turned round facing Raccoon |
Eventually the alligator did not strike. Tom said that the gator was too small to eat the big raccoon for this case. He did see large alligator eating raccoons and pigs in the swamp. We moved on.
After moving forward a while, we saw a large group raccoons, over 10 of them, on the bank following the boat, hopping to get some food. We also spotted a couple raccoons hanging high up at the tip of swinging tree branches. There must be some predators around a short while ago.
The swamp is beautiful with many alligators, mostly small (young) alligators. We did see one big alligator - about 30 years old based on its size per our tour guide.
There were many grand egrets at the swamp as well. We actually saw an egret eating a fish! When the tourists were tired of looking at alligators, Captain Tom taught them how to tell the male egrets from female egrets - male has a long "feather" tail - see photo male egret, he demonstrated on how to catches crawl fish, and also showed a baby alligator he was raising.
I enjoyed the tour so much I tipped the Captain when we disembarked. It was way better than the swamp tour we had at Everglades. This is the best swamp tour we have ever had.
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| A big alligator |
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| A male egret standing near the bank |
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| Captain Tom demonstrating how to catch crawl fish |
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| A honeymoon cabin from old times |
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| The bayou at Cajun Swamp |
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