31 deg today! Too hot for the skirt and you have probably noticed the sail has gone. They don’t work without wind. Klaas pushed me off at 8.45am.

Seeya mate

There he goes, into gator country 

The locals reckon the gators are fine. Poke ’em with a stick and they move away. The 16ft old man is a bit more stubborn but no problem apparently. I’m not keen to poke a gator with my paddle. It is expensive.

Up the bayou beside the river

A log jam. Seen them before.

The wheels are a nuisance in this stuff

These are on the inside of bends and they collapse as I paddle past. Normal stream flow logic does not apply. Sometimes the worst problems I have are on the inside of bends. Sometimes not. If the banks are collapsing on the inside of bends the river is straightening

Tried racing this bloke for half an hour but he was too fast

Sports tape doesn’t work!

Plenty of wrecks around

Even inside the trees the current can be fierce

Bridge finish again

Somebody made a track for me out of the river

This is what a fire ants nest looks like. They are not pleasant.

 

38.8km for the day. 364.1km from the Gulf

Klaas    Hi all.Hurrah. Saw my first “Gator”. Waiting for the master to arrive at designated pick up point some hill Billies arrived in an old pick up truck. She was rather “Plump”, nothing over 20 stone and no teeth and he resembled a match with all the wood scraped off. They were delightful and told us all about the river and bayou/ . She wanted to buy my book but they could not come up with the $20= but would order one from Amazon. We are now travelling in lonely rural areas and access to the river is highly restricted. The levies are fenced off and leased to farmers who run cattle on it. Interspersed are huge oil refineries and electricity power stations with “No admission ” signs and guards . Yesterday, waiting to pick Steve up, I drove the car and kayak box on top of the levy wall so Steve could see me easily from the water. Next thing a police car came up and the sheriff

came out looking like John Wayne. Two revolvers ,one on each hip. “Private property this here” he drawled. I explained to him I was extracting a mad Australian kayaker and he would be coming any minute. “Alright,” he drawled, “I wont book ye.,seeing it is Sunday, a nice day and I hate the paperwork. “(These are the hazards of pickups