2005/03 Deep South trip - Grand Isle |
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The area was beautiful, with the trees leafing out, and the azaleas and camellias blooming, and we considered camping at Oak Alley, but the weather had turned wet, so we headed south to the beaches of the Gulf Coast. The whole trip, about a hundred miles, was through wetlands, with the road barely above water level.
I’d expected the area to be uninhabited, but as we followed the Bayou Lafourche towards the sea, we passed through small towns with dozens of shrimp boats moored along the Bayou. Definitely Forrest Gump country! Many of the houses were built high on stilts. The town of Grand Isle looked better kept than most seaside towns we’ve seen, but I guess that they get the opportunity to rebuild it quite often. Just about when the houses need maintenance, a hurricane storm surge 
comes through and washes them all into Baratara Bay.
We made it to Grand Isle state park, just after sunset, with only enough time to quickly check out the beach and look out across the Gulf of Mexico. What looked like Christmas trees out on the water were offshore oil drilling rigs.
The campground was quite cheap and gave us a large site with electricity and water and showers. However, the water tasted of iodine and the showers were cold, probably welcome in July, but not in March!
Thursday March 10th
We spent all day on the beach, either walking or running or watching the sunset. It was cool and breezy but very sunny, so we were pretty well fried by the end of the day. Grand Isle is a barrier island, with the mainland side looking towards Baratara Bay. The ocean side faces the Gulf of Mexico and the closest land is Cuba, about 500 miles south of us.
The sea water was quite warm, and I was considering a dip until we saw the triangular dorsal finszooming around just offshore. They turned out to be dolphins rather than sharks, and they 
entertained us all day, making the water boil as theyzoomed around chasing fish. A fisherman we talked to admitted that the dolphins were doing much better than he was. He was going to come back for some night fishing for “red fish” when there was lesscompetition.
The beaches were cleaner than I expected, no trace of leakage from the oil rigs. Birds seemed to be thriving, mainly 
squadrons of brown pelicans, but gulls, sandpipers, and oystercatchers too. There were also some colourful flowers around the shore line, 
including this hydrangea-like plant with a mixture of pink and yellow flowers.
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