A QUICK STOP IN CAJUN COUNTRY

View from the Ferry

As storm clouds gather we hop on the Galveston to PortBolivar Ferry this 2.5 mile 20 minute crossing shaves a lot of miles off our trip and the best part is it’s absolutely FREE!  Once we land in Port Bolivar we head up to the I-10 and continue east into Louisiana.

Since the storm is building in the west we can only spend one full day in the Cajun heartland.  We choose New Iberia since it is basically on our route and home to the McIlhenny Tabasco Company and Jungle Gardens on Avery Island.

We stay at the KOC Kampground, which is just down the road from Avery Island. The campground is a large field with gravel spaces around the perimeter.  Nothing really noteworthy here, other than being near our route and close to Avery Island.

bottling hot sauce

The McIlhenny family still owns Avery Island and charges $1.00 for access to the island.   This island is actually a salt dome with the volume of salt estimated to be larger than Mt Everest.  This is the source for the salt used to make their famous hot sauce.  The tour of the factory is free.  It starts with a short film about the history of the Island, Edmund McIlhenny the creator of Tabasco hot sauce and the process used to make the sauce.  Then we view the bottling plant and make a quick stop in the huge gift shop to replenish our tobacco products.

Bird City

In addition to the Tabasco plant the McIlhenny family operates the Jungle Garden. There is a small fee to visit the gardens but it’s well worth it. These gardens are the Legacy of Edmund’s son; Edward Avery McIlhenny who founded a bird colony known as Bird City here around 1895.   In the late 1800’s plume hunters slaughtered egrets by the thousands, to provide feathers for ladies hats. Edward gathered eight young egrets, raised them by hand and released them in the fall to migrate to Mexico.  The following spring, they returned along with a few friends and the flock continues to expand to this day. 

Jungle Gardens

Edward was also an avid horticulturalist.  He introduced varieties of azaleas, camellias, papyrus sedge and other rare and exotic plants to the island.  The result is a beautiful landscape with towering oaks draped in Spanish moss surrounded by bayou. 

We spend most of the afternoon exploring the gardens, the azaleas are blooming and alligators watch us from the comfort of their ponds.  What a great introduction to this part of the country.  Wish we could stay longer but that nasty storm is closing fast…

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