Atchafalaya Experience Nature Swamp Tour

OMG we had soooooo much fun with Coerte and Mr. Kim. Not only are the knowledgeable, but they are invested and CARE about the Bayou. No alligator marshmallow feedings and a respect for the Eco system. At one point I counted 22 gators around us. Ugh, it was amazing!

First swamp tour. We were passing through LA and found this company last minute through Unilocal.It was great, they were able to meet us that afternoon. The boat was nice, they provided life jackets and for the kids and gave us lots of information about the area. We saw plenty of birds and beautiful Spanish moss filled trees but no crocs.

Despite the previous «excellent» Unilocal reviews for this tour, I regret that my group’s experience was truly awful. Do NOT take this tour if Courte, Sr. (in his mid-80’s) shows up to lead the tour without his son. First, he failed to provide any safety briefing or point out the locations of the lifejackets.
After less than 10 minutes underway, our boat’s engine stopped working. After numerous interventions over more than 20 minutes to restart it, rather than turning back, he had our much larger boat tied up to one of the skiffs and we proceeded underway. During the next hour, despite the fact that he was not driving, he offered no tour guiding narration, but flirted with another female guest. He did not pay close attention to where we were going, and the friend he had asked to guide other boat was not familiar with the area. So we traveled slowly and inefficiently, with Courte not describing anything for us along the way except for a brief amount of time around an osprey nest.
Finally, an hour and 40 minutes into our trip, the engine started (I think it was just flooded the whole time). He then attempted to take us into a shallow closed-​in area, to see some bird’s nests with baby birds.
So in we went, where he promptly ran over a large log, despite a guest on the bow yelling to him to watch out. We then spent many minutes trying to free the boat. We then went farther in and did get a good view of the baby birds in their nest. Unfortunately, he was not able to extricate us from this close-​in area.
We then spent 10 – 15 minutes trying to extricate ourselves. As an experienced powerboater and sailboater, I found some of the attempts he made to extricate us to be inexplicable. During this time he scraped against trees, tearing off bark, fouled the boat again on underbrush, and hit trees so hard that the impact bent the steel poles on the boat’s sides holding the safety nets.
Then, the engine stopped again and could not be started.
Because one of my friends was feeling very unsafe and insisted on returning to the dock, he placed us in the friend’s boat and we started home. Partway home, this guy asked for my help in reading his cell phone compass, as he did not have his glasses. He told us that he did not know how to get back to the dock, as he was not from the local area and Courte had asked him to help out the previous evening. We therefore relied on my friend’s satellite-​navigation app to guide us home. I’m not sure how long we would’ve been out there without this navigational assistance. He also told us that the last time he had been asked by Courte to assist as a guide, that Courte’s boat’s engine had failed.
I am confident that Courte’s son is an excellent and capable guide based on other reviews. Unfortunately, he was not with us, and it is my opinion that the father’s actions, at least on this day, were deficient.

A beautiful tour with experienced and responsible guides.

Great tour. Kim is a wonderful guide — very knowledgeable about the ecology of the marsh and the critters. Excellent for photographers and bird lovers and he tells good stories!

My wife and I are naturalists — we love birds and nature in general, but we’re not fanatics. We’ve been on perhaps a dozen swamp tours in the southern US and this is definitely the best. The guide knew his stuff, we were in a small boat (there were five people on the tour, but the boat could probably hold 6 – 8) which could get out of the channels and right into the swamp and we spent over three hours winding our way through the Atchafalaya. He found birds — the most exciting for us were several owls — but the herons, ducks, and egrets were more beautiful. This was good enough that we’ll make an effort to return for the same tour at different times of year. (And it helps that the Atchafalaya itself is excellent!)
There were no airboats in the distance and no trained alligators!
4÷20÷2013 — We liked them so much last year that we came back. This time for a dawn tour of a major rookery. Fabulous! We IDed 40 species (we kept a list) and there were another dozen (ducks and warblers) we could not ID. Definitely the best we’ve been on.

Hurricane Gustav came ashore yesterday and stormed straight up through the Atchafalaya basin hitting the heart of Acadiana, Cajun country. This beautiful unique part of Louisiana has a population of over ½ million people. The hurricane’s eye came ashore just east of Atchafalaya Bay in Terrabonne Parish. TV coverage was focused elsewhere and completely missed any mention of the storms impact on this area. I wonder how much damage has been done?
NPR showed a wonderful documentary this week called «Atchafalaya Houseboat.» In the 1970s, Gwen Carpenter Roland was about to start work on her doctorate when she decided instead to live off the land — and water of the Atchafalaya River Basin Swamp. Gwen’s lovely voice narrates a journey back to that amazing ten years of her life. Much more is available on this amazing lady including her book and photos by C.C. Lockwood.
Even though our vacation of July is over and we are back home it seems like the Atchafalaya is still calling to us. Thanks again Kim for taking us into the truly unique American wonderland wilderness.