March 22 2012 Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia

We headed out to the Okefenokee Wild Life Preserve. We took a boat tour out into the swamp. Okefenokee means in the Indian  ‘trembling ground’. The swamp is a big peat bog with some tree islands. The grass and plants grow on floating ‘battery's’ of peat. Walking on them is like walking on a water bed-the ground trembles like jell.

butterfly in the parking lot, gater in the swamp

Boat tour in the swamp. A big fire burned part of the swamp last spring. Fire renews the swamp, it burns out all the underbrush stuff so the native plants can grow back up.

another gater. A split in the trail. The trails were dug as canals to drain the swamp. The company digging them went bankrupt in the depression, so they are now channels. The rest of the swamp is wide open peat bogs. The way the whole swamp was before white man arrived and dug canals and logged the trees.

Okefenokee prairie. That is all trembling ground. The plants in front are golden club, a water plant. The guide stopped the boat out here and all you could hear was silence broken by cricket frogs and pig frogs. The pig frogs croak sounded like a pig grunting.

A golden club bloom. They are edible, taste like radishes, so the guide said. A coot between lily pads and water plants

water lily. The water is stained dark brown like dark ice tea by the tannin produced by the peat. The water looks black, but is clear and very pure drinking water. An egret in the prairie.

more wet prairie.

Last years pitcher plants. They are not up yet this year. They are carnivores. Swamp iris

Trees draped with Spanish moss.

You can also rent canoes. You can see more though in the boats. Cypress trees

First there were 4 sliders, then 3

Chesser homestead on an island in the swamp. Their bathroom

The Chesser’s grew sugar cane, this is where they processed it into syrup. Their well

Long shot of a gater, and a closer up shot.

Butterfly on water hyacinth, Walt Kelley the author of the comic strip Pogo lived near the Okeefenonkee swamp.

The Folkston Funnel train viewing platform. It is next to a couple tracks. All of the trains going to and from Florida  are routed through Folkston. Over 60 trains a day. This platform has power, ceiling fans, free Wi-Fi and you can listen to the train radio. There were a number of people there with cameras waiting for the trains.