Airboat Adventure In The Swamp

Leading up to this trip, we went back and forth about whether or not we should spend the money for an airboat swamp tour. Costing more than just a regular swamp tour on an ordinary boat, the airboat tour offered the added excitement of speed and the agility to cruise through narrow passages and saltgrass flats where other boats cannot travel, so it was definitely tempting. After reading internet reviews, we decided to bite the bullet and go for it. One of the best vacation experiences we have ever had...hands down! Watch the videos, look at our pics! This was truly amazing! We highly recommend doing it. Not only is the swamp just a beautiful place to travel through, with gorgeous trees, covered in Spanish moss hanging over narrow channels of brackish water, but when they open that engine up and that fan is going full speed, the power is exhilarating! We had no idea how powerful those fans were until we happened to come up behind another airboat that was cruising at a gentle “no wake” pace about 50 yards in front of us. The wind from that boat, basically cruising at idle speed, was enough to blow a baseball cap off our heads. BTW, they warn you not to wear any hats on this tour...we now understand why. We weren’t sure what we were going to experience or if we’d even see an alligator, but we had high hopes. Our boat captain, Richie, took us to this narrow cove which was tucked away behind an oil platform way back in the swamp and then we saw our first gator! Richie knew this area well and even knew the gators by their patterns and colors. When he parked the boat next to the saltgrass, they came out of the woodwork...literally! Within seconds we had 5 gators swimming up to our boat from every direction! The kids got to throw marshmallows at them and watch the gators gobble them up. Apparently the white color of the marshmallows attracts their attention and they just can’t get enough. Richie said the locals call marshmallows “swamp crack”, cuz the gators just love it! But that was just the beginning. As you can see in the pics, our boat captain was very comfortable with the gators and he fed them by hand, pulled one onto our boat temporarily so the kids could touch a 6 foot gator, and let us all hold a baby gator that he had brought along with us in an ice chest. We were all so surprised how soft the baby gator’s skin was! You always picture alligator skin to be like hard scratchy turtle shell, but it was totally smooth like a dolphin’s skin. Since our boat captain’s name was Richie, his friends nicknamed him “Richie Rich”, and so therefore he named his baby gator “Dollar”. The kids were all instantly attached to Dollar and have been talking about him ever since. What a great day in the swamp! So amazing, it’s hard to believe we’ve never done it before, New Orleans is only 6 hours from Houston, after all!