I’ll be honest. Kayaking the Okefenokee Swamp wasn’t on my bucket list. In fact, I knew very little about the Okefenokee Swamp before heading out on my road trip this spring aside from the fact that it’s home to a very healthy population of alligators. On the flipside, I was very excited to explore the Okefenokee, because I’ve always been fascinated with swamp environments.
As a kid, I would spend hours paddling a canoe in the ponds and swamps around our family cottage while searching for turtles and frogs. Those early years developed my love and appreciation of swamp environments. But the Okefenokee Swamp in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Georgia takes swamp exploration to another level.
Kayaking the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge
My first taste of the 400,000 acre refuge was to start at the eastern entrance, which is home to Okefenokee Adventures – an outfitter that works in partnership with the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to help visitors explore the ‘Land of the Trembling Earth’. Okefenokee Adventures provides canoe, kayak and jon boat rentals for visitors, as well as guided boat tours and multi-day backcountry trips.
I hooked up with Okefenokee Adventures Executive Director, Kim Bednarek, and guide/naturalist, Dan Jones, and our mission was to paddle five miles into the swamp to the Coffee Bay Shelter, where we’d take a break and cook up some shrimp jumbo before making the five-mile paddle home.
Testing the Decathlon Itiwit
With ten miles of paddling in the plans, I decided this would be the ideal opportunity to test a new touring kayak – the Decathlon Itiwit X500 inflatable touring kayak.
This is a kayak that I’ve been anxiously waiting to test for over a year as it claims to provide the touring performance of a hardshell kayak. Ten miles would definitely give me ample time to test those claims, although I was questioning my decision to paddle an inflatable kayak in a swamp filled with big and toothy American alligators!
Kayak: Decathlon Itiwit X500
Paddles: Decathlon Itiwit Adjustable Split Paddle – X500
PFD: NRS Odyssey PFD (Touring and Rec)
Clothing: NRS Short Sleeved Guide Shirt
Sunglasses: Wiley X
