5:09 p.m. - 2002-04-06
Okefenokee Swamp, Day 2
It's 7 am on the day before Easter, and we're in a hotel in Waycross, Jawjuh. Bruce is up and at 'em. He's just aching to get dressed and go see those swamp fish!
I would just as soon stay in bed and watch the nice fish on Animal Planet, but officially I'm here to collect plants for the UAH Herbarium, so I drag myself out of bed. An hour later we join eight other car loads of NANFA fish enthusiasts headed for the swamp.
I've been apprehensive about this trip. There is only one other woman here, and all the guys are hard core fishheads whom I've never met. I'm immediately reassured though, when it becomes apparent that I'm in the midst of the grown up version of an exuberant and well-disciplined Boy Scout troop. They are all excited about collecting fish and trading fish and what to do if we see an alligator, and gosh, wouldn't that be wild, and what the best collecting places might be. And they're very excited that Bruce's wife is coming along, gosh, that's great. None of their wives would be caught dead doing this!
I really have to emphasize that these are some of the nicest guys I've ever met. Not a cold fish in the lot.
So we get into the nine cars packed with gear and head off for the first stop. It's just off the appropriately named Swamp Road, on the edge of a pine plantation, and it isn't what I'm expecting from the Okefenokee Swamp. It doesn't seem that different from, say, a swamp in New Hampshire. Bruce explains that I'm thinking of the cypress swamps further down and that the swamps we'll be in are long leaf pine and tupelo.
Well, ok. So I won't see any swamp demons or voodoo priestesses. I can handle this.
The first thing I notice when we get out of the car is a patch of bones and what seems to be fur. Bruce lookes over some vertebrae and thinks they're from an alligator. I think they're from a deer, because of the fur. And then we realise that there really are a LOT of bones, and that it's probably both. It's kind of unnerving, because I'd like to sit and have a tin of sardines but I'm hesitant about plopping my butt down in the middle of fur and bones and whatever nasty microorganisms are feeding off them. So I go off to look for plants instead.
While Bruce is netting a bunch of...oh, I don't know, I guess they were...mmmm....small fish, I wander further into the swamp until I find a patch of pitcher plants. Sarracenia minor, to be exact. Looking closer it becomes apparent that the ground is covered with sundews and I become engrossed in collecting them and photographing their habitat, and then out of the corner of my eye I notice something moving in the two foot deep water.
It's a snake. It's black and has a creamy underbelly. Hmm. Black. Creamy underbelly. In the water. My my.
While the water moccasin cruises around I gather up my collecting bags and plant press and head back to the rest of the group. By this time they've all caught bunches of fish whose names I can never keep straight, and they're all excited and showing me zip lock bags of admittedly very pretty fish that they are taking home for their aquariums. Bruce has mentioned to them that I'm collecting plants and one of the older members, Dick, has found some blue-eyed grass and some odd violas for me. Another man, Lamar, points out some bladderwort, a floating carnivorous plant that I've been looking for. The plant press is getting full, as are the fish-keeping coolers.
We stop at a Huddle House for pecan waffles and hashbrowns, and I get to know Steve and Jeff a little better. Steve is from upper Georgia and works at Roselawn Museum and has his stepson with him, an adorable and extremely polite teenager who is also a fish fanatic, but more in a catching-fish-to-eat type way. Jeff has driven all the way from Kentucky and is actually with his wife and kids but they are doing the tourist trap circuit as his kids are too little to enjoy Dad's fish excursions.
After chow there are two other swamp stops. The second of these is more, well, swampy. There are a few cypress trees and lots of Spanish Moss and some very beautiful and overgrown wild azaleas. Bruce doesn't find any really exceptional fish, and I'm getting worn out from the heat, so we decide to call it a day. Back to the hotel and "The World's Funniest Animal Videos".
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