Safe Spots Above the Swamp

by FERENC IVANICS
After leaving New Orleans we definitely arrived to the largest swampland we have ever seen. We are talking about highly “uncultivated”, living swamps. There live gators, nutrias, armadillos, snakes, birds and mosquitoes in there. Mostly mosquitoes.


So there’s plenty of wetland, with a few dry spots. We try to get organized and usually ask for information about the next service area or the closest dry land by the road. Of course, to be able to put up our tents. During the last days we had to decide various times to stay on a safe spot and lose 4 or 5 hours of the day or to go on to the next bridge and see what we would find.



Usually we go on and usually that means a walk a few hours longer than planned. Spending the night on a motorway-like elevated road above the swamp/jungle is not a good idea. So far we have had luck, we managed to reach the safe spots before sundown. Except the night before yesterday, when we had to walk late into the night.


These forests rooting in the water practically seem endless. But these forests are interrupted by many rivers. Quite often the surface of these rivers is covered by thick vegetation. You wouldn’t guess that there’s a river there. The grass tufts make the illusion even more perfect. It looks like you can walk on it (I bet there was others who tried by mistake) but you can’t.



These are uninhabited territories and unwalked paths. Sometimes we see dry forests as well, but we cannot trust them. And even if we trusted them, I guess we would need tons of pesticides and dead sharp machetes and/or flamethrowers to be able to move on. But anyways, they are nice and please the eye.