A Life Wasted

Swimming with Snakes & Alligators

Behind a large wooded area was a place we kids called "The Mud Flats". Couple of times a month this flat, barren area would flood with salt water from a nearby tidal channel. The water would recede with the next tide, leaving a mud surface with hard packed ground beneath. It was a great place for a six year-old to ride his bike. The mud dried fast under the South Georgia Sun, but a dry mud flat was almost as fun as a muddy one. It took some courage for me to ride all the way across the mud flats since it required crossing several saltwater channels, but one day I succeeded in making it to the woods on the other side. There, in an unexplored woods I found a swimming hole. It was deep, fresh water, unusual in a salt water marshy area. It was also dangerous because it held a resident alligator.

Living in Savannah gators were not unknown to me, so I knew to respect gators more than snakes. The gators I'd seen before I saw from the safety of a car or boat. This was the first one I had encountered alone in the woods. He was huge. Not just an eight year old's imagination kind of huge, this gator was a monster. He was also old, with large chunks of skin missing, like he'd lost a few fights.

The swimming hole sat down in a deep bowl. You could get into it from any side just by jumping in, but the only way was a shelf of land on the opposite side from where I stood. The problem was the old alligator laid on the small shelf when he wasn't in the water. I wanted to keep the swimming hole my secret, but I couldn't swim in it without help, so I rounded up a few friends. We managed to "find" a rope, which we tied to a tree and dangled down into the water. Even with a rope to climb out of the water there were problems. On the gator's patch of land were small shrub bushes thick enough to conceal him from view at water level view. So once in the water we couldn't tell if the gator was sunning in the dirt or swimming with us. Our solution was to leave a lookout up top to watch the gator. When the gator went into the water the lookout would shout a warning and we'd climb the rope to safety. With the rope and lookout in place I jumped into the water. I went first since it was my discovery. 

I jumped in close to the rope and the instant my head popped out of the water I was climbing the rope. Half way to the top I looked over and saw that the gator hadn't budged. I was sure it'd come after me the second I hit the water, but it looked like it was sleeping. In no time all but one of us was in the water having a blast. We swam for a half hour before the gator moved. Our lookout warned us before the slow moving gator hit the water, but there were four of us in the water and only one rope, so the process was too slow. By the time the last guy pulled clear of the water the gator had been in the water for several minutes. I was brave in most things, but I was still the first guy up that rope when the gator warning went out.

The next time we swam we brought more ropes. With three ropes dangling into the water we set a rule about that: one rope for every person in the water. For a long time we only had three ropes, so we kept it at three guys in the water at one time. The gator never bothered us, but we did notice that when we got too loud he would take a swim and run us off. There were many times when it had enough time to dine on us, but it never tried. Before long we were flinching meat and feeding the gator. We'd begun to see it as our pet but he always kept a respectful distance.

The other interesting thing about the watering hole was the snakes. There were always several water moccasins, also know as a cotton mouth in the swimming hole. Though not scared of snakes, I had a healthy respect for water moccasins.

Given the chance to get away from a person, even a rattle snake will slither way. But a water moceasin is the most aggressive snake I have experienced. If you disturb one of them they are likely to attack, even to try to chase you down. This didn't bother me on land as a good stick will tame any snake, but in the water is a different matter. Water moccasins swam side ways across the top of the water with their head held up several inches Like a periscope. When one spotted you in the water, most times it would come right at you, then dive below the surface as it got close.