Down on the Bayou

The next morning we drove out of Beaumont Texas and meandered down towards the coast, taking, once again, the road less travelled. Huge oil refineries dominated the landscape as we neared the Gulf of Mexico. The land was very flat and very wet, there had been big rains just before we arrived in the region and some flood debris had been evident the day before, strung up along some fences, and there was still lots of water lying about.

The coastal stretch was low lying and swampy, primarily reedy freshwater swamps with the occasional low outcrop of small-tree be-speckled dryer land. The road followed a narrow spit that threaded through these bayous. After following one small track down to a long empty beach we got out of the car and wandered bare foot along the sand that stretched off into the distance, with only a few birds running about and a couple of high-set beach houses set well back. Not another soul in sight. We counted over twenty off-shore oil rigs hugging the horizon, and read a warning sign that described elevated bacteria levels in the water.

We drove through absolutely miles of reedy bayous, hoping to catch a glimpse of one of those cute and elusive alligators, as it sure looked to be an ideal spot for them. In fact at one ‘gas station’ we stopped at the lady seemed surprised that we hadn’t seen any these ‘pests’ warming themselves on the actual road! But no luck, however we did get some nice photos of stunning moss-laden trees, coated in more ‘old man’s whiskers’ than their own leaves.

By that time we had crossed out of Texas and into the state of Louisiana, and had stopped at a bird and butterfly’s sanctuary, hoping to view a few of the afore-mentioned animals. We did espy a couple of pretty butterflies, but that lush and soggy sanctuary was actually more heavily populated with starving mosquitoes, so after donating a litre or two of vital fluids to the hungry skeets we high-tailed it out of there.

Eventually we arrived at La Fayette and checked into our comfortable accommodation. We had decided to pay a little more for a motel that night, as the cheaper dives we’d mostly been stopping in were very noisy and a touch grotty. For dinner we had a real cultural experience by eating at a recommended traditional restaurant with a Cajun band playing violin and accordion music and people zydeco dancing to it. That was a bit of fun.

Unfortunately it turns out that the traditional recipes of the region always contain what they call the ‘holy trinity of vegetables’: onion, celery and Georgie’s nemesis capsicum! This left very limited menu items for her to choose from, so she ended up with a plate of deep fried ‘crawfish’ (freshwater crays). Rod was fortunate that the ‘chilli-free’ meal he ordered had only mild chilli in it.

Click the pics to enlarge

Reedy bayou
Long empty beach
With rigs hugging the horizon
Little birdies on the beach
And high-set houses in behind

More moss than leaves

2 thoughts on “Down on the Bayou”

  1. Looks fabulous Rod and Georgie. I love the old mans whiskers which incidentally is not a moss – it’s actually a bromeliad. A tillandsia in fact. Such a diverse genus. Would love to follow your trail. Cheers Helga
    Ps Georgie – would love a catch up when you return home.

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