Lake Charles

Monday we left behind a nice State Park and a new friend. This week we have spent a bit of time with Camilla. We have done a bit of exploring together, shared some lovely meals, sat round a campfire together and even had a bit of a jam (she plays a pretty good violin). This left us a bit sad.
Now travelling West we made good time and found ourselves a nice spot at Sam Houston Jones State Park, right on the Western Border of Louisiana in time for lunch. We are now poised to travel into Texas. But first we want to explore a little bit around here.
The campground is split into two areas, we are in the smaller of the two. The sites are small and often very close together, however it is a pleasant enough campground, while it is empty. The facilities are good, with the newer style en suite arangement found at Chicot North Campsite. Four private rooms, each with a shower, toilet, basin and mirror.
Anyway we are now safely encamped in a nice little spot by a (now dry) swamp.
We have already had deer, squirrel and a pileated woodpecker come within 10 yards of the trailer. Sally has taken a number of really good pictures of some of them.

Deep in the woods

Thursday - With Sally slowly improving, but not well enough to go out, we have been looking in more detail at the wild life around us.
So far it seems that there are a lot of amardillos, like this one.
I saw a small group of Cotton Tail deer from the car.
We had a visit from a couple of raccoons last night, they were busy investigating some petrol cans I had left out at the front of the trailer, we could hear them moving around in the dark.
Yesterday while we were having coffee our on our patio we were fortunate enough to see a Pileated Woodpecker close up. This is the largest woodpecker, apart from the very rare Ivory Billed Woodpecker, which is now only found in one part of Sout East Florida. It is also the one which modeled for the famous (amongst oldies) Woody Woodpecker. It has a very loud drum which really does sound like a pneumatic drill. It is between 12" and 15" long.