Saturday 6th September

It is our last day in New Orleans and what better way to spend it than doing a swamp tour in an airboat. We booked with Adventure Airboats for a 2.00 pm tour with the company being located about 20 miles out of New Orleans. We had plenty of time to get there so it was a lazy morning having breakfast and watching TV before we left our room at just after 11.00 am.

We booked the small, fast airboat .. most expensive, but more personal (6-8 people) and faster, so we assumed we could see more. We ended up on boat #5 with Captain Corey, who had grown up on the Mississippi bayous and canals. With only 6 of us on board, it was a great size group. The airboats are flat bottomed boats with huge propellers driving them and they can operate in only inches deep water, in fact they can skim over land for a short distance.

Corey took us to some secluded stops, called and whistled up the wildlife, alligators and racoons to put on a show for us ... literally. He had a bag full of white marshmellows which the wildlife performed for and devoured quickly. Tania had a great eye for spotting 'gators in the water at a distance, pointing out a number at one spot where we had about 5 or 6 of varying sizes swimming around us.

The swamp tour was on the 'to do' list for New Orleans and it did not disappoint. It was a great day out and Corey made it very entertaining for us.

Without any kitchen facilities in our accommodation this time, we chose to finish our last day off with a Mexican dinner.

Getting around the many Districts of New Orleans on foot has been easy with their grid system of roads, but driving the highways is a little more challenging. Fortunately we have GPS to assist us with driving the very complex multi levelled network of motorways, judging the on and off ramps at maximum speed as cars are weaving across the lanes making last second decisions. We may need to keep either left or right at the fork and then quickly take the next exit, but ensuring we get into a particular lane to navigate the upcoming slip road after the next set of lights. Each maneuver needs to be followed carefully otherwise a missed exit means a recalculation of our route. At all times though we need to keep calm and expect the unexpected whilst driving on the opposite side of the road !!