Southern Roads, Tue, 10 Nov 2015 | written by Simon
Simon at a Forest in North America, USA

It wasn’t too bad. The hair washing. And being at least a little bit cleaner made sleeping much better. The last time I went on a trip like that in New Zealand there were many beaches with public showers around. Maybe I’ll find some once I hit the coast.

I slept at some suburb near a train line. The trains sure like to make themselves known here, a lot of hooting throughout the night. Ah well, I was too tired to bother to move. Slowly getting past the jetlag, managed to stay up until almost 10pm.

 

Today I went to the Okefenokee Swamp. It was raining pretty heavily in the morning, so I decided to stay in the car and read a bit before going out. Then I got fed up and decided that tough, I’ll just get wet. It turned out that the timing was perfect – it was five minutes to the next boat ride. And this being a rainy Monday morning, I was one of just two visitors in the entire park. So we sat in the boat and set off hoping to see some alligators.

We didn’t. Too cold and too rainy. The beasts hibernate this time of the year and rarely come out. I learned an interesting fact. As all reptiles, alligators need sun to thermoregulate. Also, they can only digest food if their bodies are at least 28’C, but during Oct-Apr it rarely gets that warm. So… for half a year alligators don’t eat at all. Nature is amazing.

 

The boat trip was still great, going through the windy ‘river’ through the wetlands with virtually no dry land in sight. We stopped to go up an observation tower which stood above the tree level. This place is huge. Swamp, in every direction, as far as I could see. 1,770 km2 of swamp. Just wow.

 
 

I then went for a wander through the various footbridges and paths leading into the swamp. I found a gate that said that I would have to sign a waiver to go further. Which I promptly did and entered an even more interesting path through bridges three planks wide and five centimetres above the water. Alligators aren’t feeding this time of year, I thought: what’s the worst that could happen? And indeed, I’ve not seen any. Even the snakes failed to show up. Disappointing. Saw some interesting birds though.

 

In the meantime the rain eased off. I found a wooden gazebo and spent some time just reading and chilling. The poor weather really had its advantages, the place was empty!

 

After this I took a train ride around the drier parts of the swamp. The train driver’s accent was so heavy that all I understood was the ‘God bless y’all’ he gave us at the end of the guided ride. The swamp views were mediocre and the way was littered with Christmas decorations. But I mean mean completely filled with them, lights on trees and bushes, light sugar canes and snowmen, animals and… alligators pulling Santa’s sleigh. Americans really aren’t into subtleties: those decorations were like their bar meals, coming in plastic glazed triple portions.

 
 

 

 

An interesting fact – apparently it’s ok to refer to Native Americans as ‘Indians’ here. It’s also ok to pass over the fact that this swamp was a refuge of the native Seminole population which was pushed out of more fertile lands by the colonists. And to have a museum where the only story mentioning this is a diorama about the Wildes Massacre in which the decimated and land-deprived Seminoles retaliated by killing the family of a Scottish colonist, Max Wilde. Fortunately, then the brave colonist militia chased them out of the swamp.

 
 

Anyway, after some more reading I set off to a BBQ place recommended by the park staff. And I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Georgia’s BBQ fame seems to be fully deserved, this was pretty delicious. On an unrelated note, I think I might need to start asking for kids portions.

No clear sleeping plans for tonight, but definitely more reading. See what happens.