Looking back: Okefenokee Swamp Park

On Sunday morning we drove the western way around to the north, and Waycross, Georgia. There is the Okefenokee Swamp Park: still part of the national wildlife refuge, but this section is run by a commerical proprietor.

First wildlife we saw was this little guy:

This park also had a zoo area, so you could see the alligators up close. It's not nearly as good as seeing them in the wild, though.

We started out just walking around, including on the boardwalk into the swamp.

This man kept following me! :-)

Saw another one of these cute little guys again, too.

Then came, you guessed it, the boat trip,

The most famous inhabitant of the swamp is an opossum named Pogo, who was a comic-strip character many years ago. He is the one who said, "We have met the enemy and he is us," in reference to pollution.

More beautiful sights.

This alligator swam right to our boat, causing slight hysteria amongst some of the passengers.

Her name was Sweetie and she had young in this area.

Again we saw some laying in the sun, looking more like props than real animals. They are NOT small, by the way, but a good 8-10 feet long.

We then drove all the way back to the State Park and our cabin, which I finally remembered to photograph.

Looking Back: Stephen C. Foster State Park, Georgia

After visiting the NWR, we drove around the southern part of the park to the Stephen C. Foster State Park. The state leases this portion from the National Park Service. Again, we drove directly to the visitor's center, just in time to take another boat trip.

"Okefenokee" allegedly means "the land of the trembling earth". What here looks like solid ground, isn't. It is all floating. So it would certainly "tremble" if you walked on it, or tried to.

Again, we were overwhelmed by what we saw.

We saw a deer, here. this was no longer in the swamp but on solid ground.

And, yes, these critters too. They just don't look real when they lay around like this.

One swimming:

This darling little critter was in a leaf!

We stayed two nights in this park, in a cabin: living room, dining room, kitchen, full bath, two bedrooms, a huge screened in porch. Very nice.

Looking Back: Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge

In late April of 2013, Norbert and I flew to the US on vacation -- exactly one week after flying back to Germany from my mother's funeral. We didn't really know what to expect from ourselves, either emotionally or physically after her unexpected death and the flights and time changes.

We flew Düsseldorf-Atlanta-Jacksonville and spent the first night at an airport hotel in Jacksonville. The next morning we drove north to Folkston, Georgia, and from there to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  Years ago, Norbert spent a lot of time working in Georgia, and found a story about this park in our local German newspaper afterwards. He was sorry not to have known about it earlier, and was determined to get there. We finally made it!

Our first stop was, of course, the visitor's center, where Norbert made a new friend.

We then booked a boat trip, on one of these. It turned out to be just us and the guide, perfect! She was a young woman who knew such a lot about the park and was very passionate about it. A wonderful guide.

We soon saw our first 'gator!

But mainly we just looked in awe at the overwhelming beauties of nature.

There were animals, too, like this owl:

And this alligator, which tried to camouflauge itself: