We went to the Okefenokee Swamp for our summer vacation at the end of May. I would not suggest you go at the end of May. There was one huge disadvantage in going at this time of year. Yellow flies! If you are not out of the swamp by the heat of the day, they will eat you alive, through your clothes and even seem to be attracted to insect repellent.
Am I glad we went anyway? Yes! If you have not visited the swamp, it has a charm and beauty that is different than any other place we have ever been. There are several portals of entry into the swamp, but we chose the Eastern portal near the small town of Folkston, Georgia. Folkston is famous in its own right for the Folkston Funnel where 60 trains or so go through a day. It is where the trains going North and South and East and West meet along the East coast. Across the tracks from the old depot there is a covered viewing stand with lights and fans for people to watch the trains go by. From the north, one could also enter the park, but it is more for the general tourist with more attractions.
We love to watch Georgia Traveler and Georgia Outdoors and had seen the owners of Okefenokee Adventures on both shows. Chip and Joy Campbell were wonderful people and we met them on Friday on our first visit to the swamp. We were eating lunch in there store and I heard them talking about paddling with another lady who was at the swamp on a paddling trip. I went over and listened for a bit before asking questions of my own. Hubby and daughter joined me and we soon became friends and made plans to go on a guided paddling trip with Chip on Sunday morning. There is a small lunch counter in the shop and the food was very tasty! We ate lunch there three days! After booking our trip we visited the education center at the park. It had very interesting examples of the wildlife and peat batteries in the swamp. An animated mannequin made to look like an old man tells stories of the Okefenokee from the days when it was logged and pine trees were tapped for turpentine in the late 1880's and early 1900's. We then watched the video about the swamp in the theatre. One of our favorite exhibits was a 3D representation of what the swamp looks like from underneath.
On Saturday we visited St. Mary's, Georgia which is the portal to Cumberland Island. We did not have the opportunity on this trip to visit the island, but enjoyed lunch at Pa-Pa's Deli and Grill on a patio overlooking the marshes and a large sailing boat came through and moored to one of the largest buoys I have ever seen. It was a beautiful ship. We wondered around St. Mary's and visited their Visitor's Center and picked up brochures and maps. We also visited the cemetery. Hubby and I love old cemeteries and the ones on the coast have the oldest graves in our region. One epitaph greatly amused us. It was obviously a mother's grave and had a phrase her children must have heard every time they left home. It read, "Y'all be careful now, you hear? We had a lovely dinner at Seagle's Restaurant where they are famous for Rock Shrimp. Freddy had it and it was scrumptious.
Sunday morning we got up early (for us) and headed to Okefenokee for our guided kayak trip through the swamp. Daughter and I used our sit-on-tops and they provided Hubby with a Loon kayak. We headed out through the canal that was dug out in the 1880's in an attempt to drain the swamp. That didn't work so the idea for cutting the huge cypress trees began. Nearly all the old-growth cypress in the swamp was cleared and what we see today are much younger trees. We paddled through little water trails that are maintained by the National Parks Service and Okefenokee Adventure staff. We saw many wonderful plants many, many alligators. On one little peat battery I saw yellow and black stripes moving and going into the water. It was baby alligators! I'm sure I saw at least two dozen. By the time Hubby and Daughter got to them they only saw a few. Chip told us about how the mothers built the nest and that we could be assured that she was nearby. About 10 feet along the trail we came upon the mother on a peat battery. She growled at us and sank into the water. She did not stop with her noise making and I could see the water dancing from the sub-sonic sounds she was making!
Farther along the trail, we came to a crossroads. We turned to the left and there was a six to eight foot long alligator right in front of me. He sank from sight and as I crossed over him, I could feel the ridges along his back and tail rip, rip, rip, rippling along the bottom of my kayak. The water in the trails is only about 18 inches deep. The trails we were on at first were only as wide as our kayaks so we paddled by putting our paddle blades onto the peat batteries and propelling ourselves forward. The farther we got into the Chesser Prairie the wider they became, but I don't think they were more than ten to twelve feet wide at any point. The prairie was several hundred acres of water lilies and small clumps of cypress trees and other bushes.We saw cranes and herons in several places. We came upon a small Florida banded water snake. It was beautiful and very calm. It didn't even crawl off when our guide moved it with his paddle. That is not always the case with the Georgia banded water snake!
We eventually came back to the canal and took a side trip down another canal to visit the privy. Daughter and I learned a new skill in our boats. We pulled parallel to the steps of the privy, placed our paddles with one blade resting on the privy platform, and lifted ourselves from our kayaks to the privy step on our butts. The kayaks never even wobbled at all. The privies are maintained by the park service and had toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. It was very clean. The liquid waste is filtered by the peat in the swamp and the solid waste is collected several times a year by the park's service personnel. Chip said that he was glad as the concessionaire for the Eastern part of the park that he didn't have to do that job!
There were many fishermen on the canal under the shade trees fishing. They caught many hand-sized bream and they fought like the dickens. One of the rules of fishing around home is that if you aren't going to eat the fish, you throw it back. In alligator country you never throw a fish back! Another friend that is a guide in the St. Mary's River told us that once a man he was guiding threw a fish back after being told not to and a 12 foot alligator tried to climb in the boat and got halfway on the transom before he could push it back in the water with a paddle! He said it very nearly capsized the boat. We saw many alligators near boats of the fishermen, but we didn't see any throw a fish back into the water!
We had a wonderful time in the swamp. We will try to go again in December so that we can see the Sand Hill Crane migration. If you would like to learn more about the swamp, go visit Okefenokee Adventures. Chip and Joy run a great business and Chip knows everything about the flora and fauna. You will be glad you did. Just don't go in the summer when it's so hot and there are yellow flies to eat you up! In the mean time you find me Living Life and avoiding yellow flies!
