MARDA BURTON

PUBLISHED IN: Jackson Clarion-Ledger; New Orleans Times Picayune; & many magazines and newspapers throughout North America; Cont. Ed., Veranda Magazine.

SPECIALTIES: Luxury travel; Southeast USA; New Orleans; Travel Essays

AWARDS: STS Travel Writer of the Year, 1988.

(504) 561-0420
906 Rue Royal
New Orleans, LA 70116
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Laurel, MS 39440

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INTERVIEW WITH A CAMEL

by Marda Burton, Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.

“Do you know the location of the world’s longest bridge over water?” the camel asks. Usually the interviewer asks the questions, but it’s my first talking camel. So I say “no.”

“It crosses Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. We call it the Causeway.” The camel snakes out probably the world’s longest tongue for more tidbits. “It’s another world over on this side. We have lots of goodies people don’t know about. Big surprises. I’m one of them.” Indeed, I think, and wish for a tape recorder. But a steno pad will have to do.

This particular big surprise, a comical-looking critter with a curly topknot falling over one eye, is Aladdin, a bactrian (two-humped) camel. He lives in sumptuous camel comfort at the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, Louisiana, one of the communities “across the Lake” known collectively as the Northshore.

Tossing his curls, Aladdin tells me he has a wife. “This handsome creature you see standing before you is not half so pretty as my Jasmine. She’s too shy to talk to the press. I’m the outgoing one.”

“We’re lucky,” he says. “We never have to stagger over sand dunes for endless hours without water, lugging camel-bags or humans. I’m told it’s much nicer here in Louisiana than where my kind comes from – cooler and no sand in my eyes. I hardly ever use these extra eyelids.”

Aladdin’s job is to amble around with 2,700 other animals on a lush 900-acre preserve used over a century as a lumber camp, a gentlemen’s hunting club, and a horse farm. Now it’s “The Peaceable Kingdom” come to life, thanks to Ken Matherne who inherited the Tangipahoa estate and began collecting exotic animals in 1989.

“Almost peaceable.” Aladdin nods toward two Father David deer locking antlers. “By and large we believe in ‘live and let live.’ Like an African safari without predators. I’ve heard of lions and tigers, but I’ve never seen any, thank goodness. Look out! Here comes Norman, the Texas Longhorn. He’s just an old softie, but he often gets in my way.”

Norman’s huge horns stretch for miles, his tongue is longer than Aladdin’s, and his sleek bulk edges out herds of smaller animals also hanging around our wagon with their tongues out. Among the forty or more species free-roaming the preserve, many rare and endangered, are giraffes, zebras, antelope, llamas, eland, emus, rheas, dromedaries, Watusi cattle, wildebeests, little deer, big stags, even behemoth pug-ugly bison. They follow our tractor-pulled covered wagon train because we clutch in our hands $1 cups of food pellets that ruminant animals find delicious.

“Hold onto your cup, especially when the Cape eland bunch gets here. We all get a kick out of stealing cups, but they’re the best at it. It’s our favorite game.” The animals close in on us without unseemly haste and with great dignity, ready for an afternoon snack. Within the wagon the humans are less refined, so eager to interact with creatures more commonly seen in National Geographic that they’re all but shoving each other out of the way.

As if on cue, an elegant giraffe strolls gracefully out of the woods, his wife and baby trailing behind. “It’s really fun being famous,” Aladdin says, as the stately giraffes pose for the cameras like movie stars. “Sometimes people even kiss me – peee-ew! We meet a quarter million humans a year, and I quite like them. They’re very excitable, but they’re sweet.”

“All of us are big boosters for the Northshore,” Aladdin says. “Visitors are our bread and butter, so to speak.” I ask about the other surprises he mentioned. He lists llama and alligator farms, an eccentric museum in Abita Springs, a deep, dark swamp with wild alligators, an old time museum in a hardware store, a winery, excellent shops and gourmet restaurants, and sunny, lazy villages with churches and buildings that look like yesterday leftover. Here are Aladdin’s picks:

COVINGTON

A tram ride offers a short tour of historic streets, and you’ll quickly find this certainly isn’t the backwoods. Then explore on your own the town’s sophisticated shops and galleries located downtown and on Lee Lane. Stroll to circa 1846 Christ Episcopal Chapel and Garden. Watch Majolica making at Hasslock Studios, 334 N. Vermont Street. On Wednesday (2-6) and Saturday (9-1) check out the open air farmers market at City Hall.

At H.J. Smith’s Hardware Store, a nostalgic museum holds local memorabilia dating from 1876. You’ll see everything from authentic scarecrows to a metal casket with a see-through face cover modeled after an Egyptian mummy case. It’s old time country store come true. 308 N. Columbia St.; 985-892-0460; open during store hours, admission free.

Go North to Bush and Pontchartrain Vineyards, the Northshore’s award-winning winery. Winemaker John Seago insists his is a craft, not a science. He and his wife Susan have perfected wines of excellent character designed to complement Louisiana cuisines. Only a few hundred cases per year, but well worth owning and drinking; sample them in an old world French tasting room. “Food is so important in Louisiana,” he says, “but where is the wine?” Here, of course. 81250 Old Military Road, Bush; 985-892-9742; 10-5 Wed.-Fri., Sat. 10-4, Sun. noon-4; www.pontchartrainvineyards.com

Go East to John Price’s Insta-Gator Ranch & Hatchery for a fascinating close-up of both the wild and farm-raised alligator industry. A leader in research and management of gators, Price offers opportunities to see, feed and hold some of his 2000 gators. In hatching season (August) you can also reserve an egg and help hatch it ($24.99, $9.99 to view). 23440 Lowe Davis Rd.; 985-892-3669, 888-448-1560. Tours $8 adults, $7 seniors, $6 children. School group rates and gift shop.

ABITA SPRINGS

One block East of Abita Springs’ only traffic light, UCM Museum in a vintage service station is a quirky wonderland of found objects made into great stuff that often moves when a button is pushed. Artist John Preble is proud of owning the world’s second-largest collection of paint-by-numbers paintings (second only to the Smithsonian). In the various old buildings, including one embedded with millions of pottery shards, are hand-made animated southern scenes, collections of old bicycles, radios, pocket combs and barbed wire, homemade inventions, arcade machines, and a gift shop with fine handcrafted items. 22275 Highway 36, Abita Springs, LA 70420; 985-892-2624; www.seelouisiana.com/ucm. Admission $3; open 10-5 every day but major holidays.

The 21-mile-long Tammany Trace awaits walkers or cyclers, after which the Abita Brewpub awaits with tours and convivial chats with locals.

MANDEVILLE

With a girth of nearly 40 feet and standing 55 feet tall, the enormous Seven Sisters Oak is said to be 1000 years old. As the largest live oak tree in North America, it serves as president of the Live Oak Society, an organization composed of historic and ancient trees. It spreads its copious branches over the yard of a Louisiana raised cottage in a residential district.

Well worth a drive-by or a scenic walk, Lakeshore Drive in Mandeville is bordered by Lake Pontchartrain on one side and on the other a lovely lineup of 19th century mansions built by wealthy New Orleanians who escaped the city during the yellow fever epidemics of the 1800s.

SLIDELL

Here the Honey Island Swamp Tour is a must. Dr. Paul Wagner is a professional wetland ecologist. For 20 years his narrated boat tours have gone deep into the untouched wilderness of the Nature Conservancy’s first Louisiana preserve. In these silent, hard-to-reach bayous you’ll see big ‘gators and turtles lazing around on logs, not to mention egrets, herons, ibis, and gnarled cypress trees hanging with long gray beards of moss. 106 Holly Ridge Dr., Slidell, LA 70461; 504-641-1769. New Orleans hotel pickup 504-242-5877. $20 adult boat tour, $10 child under 12, $40/$20 with transportation to and from New Orleans hotels. Group rates for 16 persons or more. www.honeyislandswamp.com

AND ANOTHER CAMEL FACTOID
Do you know the location of the world’s second-longest bridge over water? According to Aladdin, it’s in Malaysia – thousands of miles around the world. We both prefer Louisiana.