27th April – 2nd May 2023
Housekeeping:
Before I start blathering on, it seems that those people that subscribe to the site are not getting the photos included with the post when it is sent by email. This is likely a glitch at my end and I shall try and fix it. In the meantime you can go directly to the site at tincantravels.net, or copy and paste the link at the end of the email.
The Blather:
We headed north and crossed into southeast Georgia. Destination Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, a 630 square mile area that includes 90% of the world renowned Okefenokee Swamp. So you’ve all heard of it, right??! It is another small slice of this massive country that is ecologically hugely significant and mostly unknown to all but locals and those in the business. In fact it is so important that is has been designated a Wetland of International Importance and is on the tentative US list for World Heritage Status. So there, now you have all heard of it!
Okefenokee is a vast bog that sits inside a huge saucer shaped depression that was once a shallow ocean floor. It gives rise to two rivers that flow out of it in opposite directions and its waters are inky black, stained by the tanins from the rotting vegetation.It’s name translates to “Land of the Trembling Earth” and the massive wetland is home to a myriad of species of plants, trees, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Its the whole shabang of an ecosystem.
There is a park in the swamp called Stephen C Foster State Park, oddly named for a 19th century composer, and we were here for five nights. We love these parks. They are usually off the beaten track, in wooded areas with large secluded pitches, firepits, great simple facilities and a give a sense that we are really ‘camping’. The down sides are usually a lack of wifi, and bugs. We knew that coming to a state park in a swamp was going to be ‘bug heavy’ so we had stocked up on 40% DEET – you know, the stuff that makes your skin smoke when you apply it: that’s one of the ways that it repells insects. There were many miles of long, straight, quiet, pine tree bordered backroads to get us there and we really felt like we were heading into the wilderness. Depite being nicknamed ‘The Peach State’, Georgia actually earns 40% of its GDP from forestry. We were right in the middle of it.
The park offers opportunities for fishing, boat tours, motor boat, canoe or kayak hire and a few walking trails. It is also a designated Dark Sky Area for star gazing if one is inclined to sit outside at night and be monstered by mosquitos. The waterways in the swamp are signposted and mapped and the more adventurous can do multi day trips with designated camping facilities throughout the area. There is lots of wildlife to see but the most impressive, and I would argue most plentiful creatures, were the alligators. Hundreds of the blimin’ things! They ranged in size from 1ft babies all the way up to 12ft big’uns. They seemed completely unfazed by the presence of humans and a couple of large ones were even resident in the small marina basin, floating near the boats and boat ramp and basking in the sun near the canoe rack. Although there have been no reports here of an attack on a human since 1937 we were warned not to attempt to get close or try and take selfies with them. This seemed like common sense to us but we spent some time chatting to a ranger who had seen plenty of humans behave with a bizzare lack of self preservation skills. It did also feel at times like a squirrel safari park. These were also very numerous, unbothered by our presence and very entertaining.
We did some walks around the park and our land-based wildlife exposure was mainly insect based, heavy on the mosquitos, despite the 40% toxo-spray. There were some amazing dragonflies and shimmering flying beetles. One huge flying something followed us closely for about 200m, like some sort of tiny, airbourne, well trained, black labrador.
Our internet access was limited. A short cycle with laptops took us to the office/gift shop at the basin which had a insect-proof, screened porch area with rocking chairs where we could get the satellite based wifi connection and here we sat for an hour or so each morning. It’s important to stay abreast of the complete dearth of news, the lack of emails from our solicitor about the sale of our house, checking weather forecasts that blatantly lie and the inanity of the rest of the internet offerings.
One day we took a guided boat trip with a very genuine and helpful young chap called Alex. He lacked any iota of sarcasm, irony or cynicism. It’s dificult to know how to interact with people like this. We slowly motored out onto the swamp and he was very knowledgeable about the fauna and flora and the history and ecology of the area. He called me Ma’am a lot and this made me feel quite old. There were loads of alligators both in the water and hauled out on logs, basking in the sun. They are quite magnificent creatures, unchanged genetically for millions of years. Its as if they evolved initially into an animal perfectly suited to their life and then nature just brushed off it’s hands and said ‘Done. No improvements needed. No natural selection necessary. Finito’. There are only 2 species of alligator worldwide. This, the American allicator, and the Chinese alligator.
The next day we risked believing the weather forecast and got up early – well 8am – to rent a watercraft. It was sunny, and more importantly due to be only light winds for a few hours. We broke our 3rd rule for a long and happy marriage1 and shared a double canoe. There was an option for a 4hp motor boat, but it was a beautiful calm morning and we didn’t want to disturb our own serenity.
With disclaimer signed, money paid, lifejackets donned and paddles and seat cushions in hand we dragged our big aluminium canadian canoe to the water’s edge and managed to board it and float ourselves without incident. I sat in the front seat and was happy to be the lucky recipient of a very helpful and constant stream of instructions on what I was doing wrong with my paddling technique, how to steer properly, and how I should pay more attention to what direction the boat was going in. I accepted my lessons calmy and quietly with grace and gratitude, of course, and it did nothing but enhance our swamp cruising experience …. (The rules1 are there for a reason, Folks…) Despite all that we had an amazing trip. We saw no-one else out there until we were heading home and it was so beautiful. There were alligators up the ying-yang.
The ones on logs and on the banks were as still as statues and the ones floating in the water would just slowly sink below the surface as we approached. I’m glad that the water was so dark because I think it would have been very unnerving to be able to see them swimming underwater around us. There were acres of waterlilies and the waterways were boarderd with Cypress and Black Gum trees drapped in the all pervasive Spanish Moss (which, interestingly is related more closely to bromeliads and pineapple plants than to other mosses).
Naturally occuring wildfires caused by lightening strikes are a normal part of the ecology of the swamp. They aid the propogation of some important species of tree but this area experienced a massive wildfire nicknamed the Bugaboo Fire in 2007 and the landscape still shows evidence of this with large areas lacking larger trees. The fire started in the Okefenokee when a tree fell onto a power line in high winds, this joined with another caused by a lightening strike on Bugaboo Island in the swamp. The hot and dry conditions caused the fire to and burn for over two months from April to June. Having merged with other fires and spreading into northern Florida it became the largest fire recorded in the history of both states, having burned over half a million acres and the smoke spread as far north as Atlanta, Alabama, Mississippi to the west and down south to Fort Lauderdale.
We did have several thunderstorms whilst we were here but happily without any nearby lightening strikes or scary fires. The mosquito situation was better than expected on the whole and, except for a busier couple of days over the weekend, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It had been incredibly peaceful and a relative partial tech detox. Any period of relative wilderness living is best followed by a spell in more civilised suroundings and our next stop was to take us up further north and back towards the coast in Georgia. We bid a fond farewell to the swamp and its prehistoric inhabitants and headed back the way we had come.
1The Hampson Rules for a Long and Happy Marriage:
Rule 1: Do your own ironing. (This rule was abandonned early. Now Nick does it all)
Rule 2: Close the door for number 2s
Rule 3: Never share a double kayak or canoe