louisiana bookends picture post
Louisiana was a funny state to photograph. When i first got into the state, way down in the most southwest corner in Cameron parish, i was blown away. But then i cycled north and found the landscape so tedious i didn't take any photos for 2 days. It didn't help that the roads in the farmland were completely torn to shreds, while the roads in the swampland lacked a shoulder. In both cases i had to pay close attention to my cycling, as car drivers zoomed past, leaving only a hair's breadth between us. Somehow i got a good set, although this isn't probably representative of the state.
...and that first picture, well that wasn't in Louisiana at all. Tricked ya! That's actually a photo cycling along the seawall in Port Arthur, Texas. The bridge in the distance is the one that takes you onto 82, the wonderful highway into Cameron.
The next photo is technically also in Texas. It's a picture of the bridge that crosses the last stretch of the Sabine River before it goes out to sea. The other side of the bridge is Louisiana.
And bam! On the Louisiana side, i was greeted with this fabulously straight road disappearing off into nowhere. Wetlands on both sides. The birdlife here was a delight. I know i have a few birdwatchers on my friends list, and i urge you to put this drive on your bucket list. It is so cool to see these large, graceful birds popping up out of the reeds for miles and miles.
If you've been reading my journal a while, you might have noticed that i very rarely take photos of people or houses. This is because i don't like to invade people's privacy. Unfortunately it means that i rarely capture the "real life" pictures of a place, but it's just one of my quirks... I feel embarassed taking photos of people's personal lives. In a lot of places i travel it might come across as poverty tourism, which i think is gross. All that said, there were some really wild communities along the strip before getting into Cameron. They were just a smattering of houses, now all on very tall stilts. Many still exhibited hurricane damage. Some had been repainted. Others were in ruins. Others were just stilts or a pad without a house. A lot of people seem to have switched to living in RVs. The whole coast looked like a string of shantytowns. This is a photo that i hope preserves the dignity of the people who live there, taken from the beach while the wind blew dry sand across the wet.
Here is another photo of that straight road, taken from a section where the road runs right along the waterfront.
I had to pull over and take a photo here because i thought it was so odd to see two palm trees just sitting there in the middle of the marsh. But if you look closely, you'll see there is a concrete pad between them. This was probably another house, once upon a time, but the house blew away and only the trees are still there.
This is taken next to a church whose bell tower was completely destroyed. The new structure (pictured) might be a new church under construction, or possibly a house for a very religious person who happens to live next door to the church. There were a bunch of churches along this route that were completely thrashed, and others that were up on very tall stilts. There was also a hospital that was essentially just an army tent and two RVs.
More pictures of the very flat route, this time showing some of the other stuff that grows on and in the water. It's not just reeds. Somewhere around here i saw a dead alligator on the road (hit by a car). It was massive.
A lot of these marshes have some kind of oil or gas exploration going on, so occasionally you'll see a gate that appears to lead nowhere that has a "no trespassing" sign on it.
This is the last moment where the Louisiana landscape really excited me. Suddenly, out of the water, appeared a bridge. Over more water. It was a very bizarre sensation, to come up to a bridge, after apparently already spending two days cycling over water.
On the other side of the bridge, there was a small nature loop that i cycled around - the last little piece of boggy marsh before the landscape turned into flat and boring farmland. Those yellow flowers on the right are growing in the water, it's not solid ground. It was under a tree like this one where i was considering stopping to pee, and then i saw a fucking live alligator under it and almost shat my pants.
This is one of the few pictures i took of the swamp/bayou landscape where you can make some of it out. You see the trees just growing out of the river? Well that continues on each side for much wider than the actual river crossing itself. The roads are elevated with deep drainage ditches on both sides. Unfortunately beside the roads across pretty much the entire state of Louisiana outside of Cameron parish, the ditches are full of discarded beer cans, plastic bottles, soft drink cups and so on. It's a real bummer to see so much trash in what seems like pretty raw nature.
Aaand this is where there is a gap of two days, because pretty much everything that happened in those two days was either very boring farmland or more swamps where i wasn't able to safely stop my bike to take a photo. Also, my phone died, so you don't get any pictures of Baton Rouge or the Mississippi River. But what you do get is a photo of Lake Pontchartrain at sunset.
Before i left Louisiana, i wanted to take a nature tour so i could try get some more authentic marshy bayou shots. This is a boardwalk on the Lake Pontchartrain north shore.
Another shot from the boardwalk.
Selfie on the marsh.
Cycling through the pine forests, it felt a lot like North Vancouver. A lot of the houses were mansion-like too, and not sequestered away in gated communities like the ones to the west of the causeway.
Photo of a bayou on the way to Mississippi.
This is one of the last bridges you cross before getting to Mississippi. For the last 10km or so you are just crossing bridges over various swamps and marshes. There are a bunch of swamp eco tours that you can take if you are a tourist who has time (and doesn't need to cycle another couple hours). Around here is where i started seeing wild hogs as roadkill. They're pretty scary big creatures too.
And that was basically the most southwestern corner and a fairly southeastern corner of Louisiana. You don't get any Mississippi River. You don't get any rice paddies. You don't get Baton Rouge or New Orleans or whatever the fuck is up in the northern half of the state. But these are the things that caught my eye. Cameron parish is a place i would definitely visit again. It was pretty much trash for food and accommodation - you really want to have an RV and a stove to spend a decent amount of time out there - but the landscape and the wildlife is just awesome. It's probably the most weird and wonderful place i visited on this trip so far. I was less impressed by the swamp, which is basically a darker and wetter forest. Ick.
Turns out the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast is pretty much more of the same - albeit with far more developed beach resorts. But more on that in another post...
...and that first picture, well that wasn't in Louisiana at all. Tricked ya! That's actually a photo cycling along the seawall in Port Arthur, Texas. The bridge in the distance is the one that takes you onto 82, the wonderful highway into Cameron.
The next photo is technically also in Texas. It's a picture of the bridge that crosses the last stretch of the Sabine River before it goes out to sea. The other side of the bridge is Louisiana.
And bam! On the Louisiana side, i was greeted with this fabulously straight road disappearing off into nowhere. Wetlands on both sides. The birdlife here was a delight. I know i have a few birdwatchers on my friends list, and i urge you to put this drive on your bucket list. It is so cool to see these large, graceful birds popping up out of the reeds for miles and miles.
If you've been reading my journal a while, you might have noticed that i very rarely take photos of people or houses. This is because i don't like to invade people's privacy. Unfortunately it means that i rarely capture the "real life" pictures of a place, but it's just one of my quirks... I feel embarassed taking photos of people's personal lives. In a lot of places i travel it might come across as poverty tourism, which i think is gross. All that said, there were some really wild communities along the strip before getting into Cameron. They were just a smattering of houses, now all on very tall stilts. Many still exhibited hurricane damage. Some had been repainted. Others were in ruins. Others were just stilts or a pad without a house. A lot of people seem to have switched to living in RVs. The whole coast looked like a string of shantytowns. This is a photo that i hope preserves the dignity of the people who live there, taken from the beach while the wind blew dry sand across the wet.
Here is another photo of that straight road, taken from a section where the road runs right along the waterfront.
I had to pull over and take a photo here because i thought it was so odd to see two palm trees just sitting there in the middle of the marsh. But if you look closely, you'll see there is a concrete pad between them. This was probably another house, once upon a time, but the house blew away and only the trees are still there.
This is taken next to a church whose bell tower was completely destroyed. The new structure (pictured) might be a new church under construction, or possibly a house for a very religious person who happens to live next door to the church. There were a bunch of churches along this route that were completely thrashed, and others that were up on very tall stilts. There was also a hospital that was essentially just an army tent and two RVs.
More pictures of the very flat route, this time showing some of the other stuff that grows on and in the water. It's not just reeds. Somewhere around here i saw a dead alligator on the road (hit by a car). It was massive.
A lot of these marshes have some kind of oil or gas exploration going on, so occasionally you'll see a gate that appears to lead nowhere that has a "no trespassing" sign on it.
This is the last moment where the Louisiana landscape really excited me. Suddenly, out of the water, appeared a bridge. Over more water. It was a very bizarre sensation, to come up to a bridge, after apparently already spending two days cycling over water.
On the other side of the bridge, there was a small nature loop that i cycled around - the last little piece of boggy marsh before the landscape turned into flat and boring farmland. Those yellow flowers on the right are growing in the water, it's not solid ground. It was under a tree like this one where i was considering stopping to pee, and then i saw a fucking live alligator under it and almost shat my pants.
This is one of the few pictures i took of the swamp/bayou landscape where you can make some of it out. You see the trees just growing out of the river? Well that continues on each side for much wider than the actual river crossing itself. The roads are elevated with deep drainage ditches on both sides. Unfortunately beside the roads across pretty much the entire state of Louisiana outside of Cameron parish, the ditches are full of discarded beer cans, plastic bottles, soft drink cups and so on. It's a real bummer to see so much trash in what seems like pretty raw nature.
Aaand this is where there is a gap of two days, because pretty much everything that happened in those two days was either very boring farmland or more swamps where i wasn't able to safely stop my bike to take a photo. Also, my phone died, so you don't get any pictures of Baton Rouge or the Mississippi River. But what you do get is a photo of Lake Pontchartrain at sunset.
Before i left Louisiana, i wanted to take a nature tour so i could try get some more authentic marshy bayou shots. This is a boardwalk on the Lake Pontchartrain north shore.
Another shot from the boardwalk.
Selfie on the marsh.
Cycling through the pine forests, it felt a lot like North Vancouver. A lot of the houses were mansion-like too, and not sequestered away in gated communities like the ones to the west of the causeway.
Photo of a bayou on the way to Mississippi.
This is one of the last bridges you cross before getting to Mississippi. For the last 10km or so you are just crossing bridges over various swamps and marshes. There are a bunch of swamp eco tours that you can take if you are a tourist who has time (and doesn't need to cycle another couple hours). Around here is where i started seeing wild hogs as roadkill. They're pretty scary big creatures too.
And that was basically the most southwestern corner and a fairly southeastern corner of Louisiana. You don't get any Mississippi River. You don't get any rice paddies. You don't get Baton Rouge or New Orleans or whatever the fuck is up in the northern half of the state. But these are the things that caught my eye. Cameron parish is a place i would definitely visit again. It was pretty much trash for food and accommodation - you really want to have an RV and a stove to spend a decent amount of time out there - but the landscape and the wildlife is just awesome. It's probably the most weird and wonderful place i visited on this trip so far. I was less impressed by the swamp, which is basically a darker and wetter forest. Ick.
Turns out the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast is pretty much more of the same - albeit with far more developed beach resorts. But more on that in another post...