Now I know! It is possible to paddle up the Mississippi but it is very, very hard. Where you can get to the bank it is fine. Not easy, but fine. The problem is that there are thousands of barges along the banks. To go round them you are out in the current. It takes everything I have sometimes to inch forwards.

It is kinda dangerous as well. After you go round say six barges side by side you need to get back to the bank. The easy way is to ride the pressure wave about 5m in front of the barge. I stayed about 10m in front and felt the effects of the pressure wave. The thing is not to tip over. That would be certain death. That said, if a wheel fell off your motorbike at highway speed you would probably die. It is somewhat of a calculated risk I guess.

Everyone I met was great. All ten of them. One bloke wanted me to come onto his tug and have a drink. One bloke backed his tug out of the way. We were told by Nicole that river people are great. They certainly are.

My hands have suffered with blisters under the tape and under the gloves. That is new for me and is a result of prolonged full strength paddling. They will toughen up eventually.

We started at mile 102 and finished at mile 122. I paddled a bit further than that but will call it 33km for the day.

Away we go

Just a few ducks (a few thousand maybe)

Not only battling current but battling tug wash

Loading from the barge to the ship

Bridge 1 of 2 for the day

This is horrible. To go round these can be 5km

It’s good when you can get behind the barges though

Nearly there

Waiting, waiting… 

Here he comes

Klaas     Hi all. Still in New Orleans running around like the proverbial Blue arse flies getting replacements  for either lost , misplaced or broken bits and pieces. The great master in the meantime has been paddling up the mighty Mississippi. And mighty is an apt description,. the traffic is unbelievable. Hundreds of barges, locked together in four or five eighty footers pushed along with huge tug boats. Very similar as in Europe on the Rhine. Big passenger vessels, steam paddle wheelers, container ships etc. Stevie boy has to dodge all that, as well as dealing with the current, but he is and doing his twenty odd miles a day. Picking him up this afternoon and waiting for him, I sat on an old log washed up near the shore and put my cap on the ground so I could remove my jumper as the weather was lovely and warm. Putting the cap back on my balding noggin I started screaming. Hundreds of fire ants had invaded my head piece and where now franticly biting my eyelids ,arms, legs as well as my feet inside my ” Crocs “. I now know why they are called “Fire ants”. I needed the fire brigade. But as usual, I survived and after half an hour the fire burned itself out. Tomorrow we are shifting the caravan closer to the next town which is Baton Rouge .That’s all for now. Be good or if you can’t be good, be careful. Klaas.

Connor   Having been in the thick of things here in sunny New Orleans for a week now, the boss has asked me to offer you, the valued readers, an insight into how the mission has unfolded so far. In a word; bloody-well. In a few words; not without its challenges.

We’ve been greeted with southern hospitality beyond what I expected. Americans, in my experience so far, are helpful, warm people.

We’ve met some serious characters. Sean, the cleaner in our trailer park, has face tattoos and gold grills on his bottom teeth, is a Clan Leader on the Facebook game ‘Clash of Clans’, and is concerned about what rising sea levels might mean for New Orleans, which is situated a few meters below sea level.

Jeff Crouere hosts a highly conservative republican radio show, however he’s invited Steve back on the show to discuss his trip on a fortnightly basis.

Buck, a man with NRA bumper stickers on his truck, stood around our rig and discussed the Steve’s motivations and the adventure for a decent 20 minutes.

People are consistently not what I expect them to be in Louisiana. It has been a hard slog getting the public to take notice of we’re doing, but with each day comes a new, albeit small win. These wins are great paddlin’ fuel and I think that the next few months will see Steve’s fuel tank full to the brim.

Look closely to see the red line of the route

Crisp and clear warming up to 13 degrees. A great day for walking and paddling. First an interview with Bud Ward (more about him at a later date), then set off for the walk down Conti St and then the French Quarter.

 The roads are really bad because the city is sinking

Crossing Bourbon St

Here’s the river

The time to hit the water was 2.00pm to suit Julia (more about her when she sends me her information).

On ya way Sony Boy

It was a bit underwhelming really. Sure it is a bit busy. The water is a bit like the Darling. The flow is about like a good run-out tide at Ballina so only an issue when I had to go around the boats. Hugging the bank next to the wharves was fine. It is supposed to get worse but we will see. The problem is that to use the sail I have to get away from the bank and that is where the current is.

My first big ship – the Energy Patriot. The bow wave was fine

A different perspective

The tug and barges on the left took 20 minutes to get past me 

The finish line for the day

Only 15km all up but a lot of poncing about handing out cards, telling our story etc. I do have GoPro images but the technology to post them is a few days off.

The men are in shock after a minor temperature change. Well maybe not minor, it was 21 degrees. It was also raining and gusting to about 35 knots.

We had some things to do, like get the bits to fix the taps in the van, check out the first pick up spot up the river, have a good lunch for the old guy’s 83^rd birthday and buy a new GoPro and GPS. Because we had said we were starting at 1.00pm at the Mississippi we turned up there with a banner but we were the only ones there. A radio producer spoke to us so it is hit the river at 2.00pm tomorrow.

After our 1.00pm frozen stint at the river we went back to yesterday’s finish point and did a quick spin along the length of the bayou heading towards the French Quarter.

I kept my trousers on and swapped my shoes for booties and set off with the vow to stay dry. One bridge later, ie about half a kilometer I had to advise Connor that the nuts were wet. With my arctic gloves I was fine particularly as the kayak nearly planed with 35 gusts up its clacker.

Lots of bridges where the sail had to come down. 6.4km only, all fun and a few pictures. Tonight is a 350.org meeting and I am advised it is mainly young people in the group so that should be good for Con

 Walking around the levee gates

 Let’s go

Have a close look. This one is low!

And this one was very low (and long)

Klaas  Hi all. I have never ever in all my 83 years been as cold as today, not even in Holland. Yesterday was 28* and humid, then at 6am this morning a great gust of wind and the temperature dropped twenty degrees instantly. Like the fool I am, I still put my shorts on and T shirt when Steve decided to go paddling, grabbed a jacket and off we went. When we got to the drop off zone the temperature had dropped to about 7 degrees but the twenty knot or so of icy wind dropped it down to around minus 20. We had to bolt the wheels on the kayak and holding the spanners to turn the nuts froze to my hands (Well, it felt that way). The Master however, donned his parka and gloves and launched himself into the canal, hoisted sail and paddled off. The man is stark raving mad, Klaas

PS Con just showed Klaas a great party trick with a bottle. Lots of blood but Klaas enjoyed it and a bandaid and some elastoplast seems to have fixed it. He now has a good story for tonight. Shit happens I guess

The day dawned bright and clear and warm so we were at the start before 9.00am. On opening the doors we were immediately attacked by swarms of bities. They looked and felt like sandflies but the itch didn’t last as long. We were all swatting at them and going flat out to get out of there. 

Past an old gun bunker from the days when cannons protected the lake entrance, under the bridge with still a bit of mist around and after a brief push against the current, out into the lake.

Because it was still a bit misty I kept a rough path until I could see the long bridge. That’s the bend in the route you can see. It isn’t a really long bridge by the standards here but at 8.7km it is pretty long. Look closely and you will see it

There were a few boats setting crab pots but none came near. The wind was almost nothing, from dead calm to some light zephyrs. It was a bit like waiting for the nor’easter to start at home. It kicked in from the east just as I got to the bridge so up went the sail and my spirits.

Another bridge appeared that I didn’t know about and then a train bridge that was also a surprise. The wind went south east, then south and then south west. Bugger. That’s the way I need to go. Down with the sail. Blisters appeared as I put pressure on the blades following the train line for more than two hours.

Boring, and hard work. 

At times it eased and then came back with a vengeance as well as some short sharp showers. I pulled in for a look over the levee at what turned out to be the end of the housing area.

Sorry about the rain drops

Back into the fray for another hour or so before I pulled in again for another feed. I called the guys then which was 4.00pm and said I would meet them in about an hour and a half or so.

With the sail up I scooted across to the end of the airport on a tight reach. Without a centerboard there is a fair bit of side slippage but we got there OK. Around the end of the airport and straight into the teeth of the wind and things got nasty. Waves didn’t come straight on. For some reason white caps could be anywhere in a 45 degree angle. At 18-20 knots it took all of my strength and with every slight drop in wind I would up the rate. There is only one thing to do when confronted with that, just tough it out and slog on.

Near the bank things got much better and I cruised around to the guys about 6.00pm. 41.6km in nine hours, most of it against the wind. I’m feeling pretty happy although I reckon Klaas gave me an extra heavy spoon to eat my soup tonight. I could hardly pick it up.

Klaas    Hi all. Here am I in a large, strange, foreign city with multiple airborne interchanges going this way and that and the great master, the kayaker requires to be picked up after paddling some ridiculous nine hours and 42 kilometres with 20 knots head winds. I hop into the 5.4 litre gas guzzler 9 seat Ford Expedition and set off to retrieve him. The GPS was programmed to the address where he would land and off I went. The route took me through the city and after the fifth time I knew I had been on that particular freeway before (many times) It later turned out that a particular access route was closed and the GPS was not told about it. Just on dark we found each other and the boy wonder took over and drove home.

Lots of fog around again this morning with some roads closed. We did an interview at 8.45am with Jeff at WGSO 990AM. We thought it went very well although I had the feeling that he thought I was mad but was too polite to say so. It was a Republican talk back show and whilst it is party political it is nowhere near as debased as our Aussie shock jocks.

The fog cleared on the way to the Gulf, came back with a vengeance across the lake, disappeared again and reappeared at the beach.

I reckon it will clear

We spoke with Nicole who reckoned it would clear so prepared to go.

Nicole was right you know

Let me take a shot of the team

There isn’t much to look at after you leave the beach and get into delta area.

The wind was light and then picked up to about 20 knots when I got near the railway bridge that Mike had said turn at. I was of two minds to keep going to the big bridge but it was getting rough, I wasn’t sure of where I was, so opted to head into the bayou. This was the right decision and I just followed the railway line until I saw the big bridge.

The little railway bridge

Following the railway line

The big bridge

Just after that Klaas called so I was able to let the blokes know that 6.00pm was the likely finish time and that I was fine. That was a relief because the radios are hopeless and until then there was no cell phone coverage.

I got some great footage on the GoPro but it died when I tried to extract the footage. Con will take it back to Camera House in Lismore along with the rucksack mounting that doesn’t work either. Will buy a new GoPro in a couple of days.

 What kept ya buddy boy? Without the sail I would be still at the big bridge. The Fly Kayak sail is superb!

After 43.6km I am buggered. The water still leaks at the van so we need to buy a new fitting from the RV store. That’s another problem for later. I am off to bed.

Frustration again! Way too much fog but Mike the fisherman reckons it will clear tonight so tomorrow it is GO!

Trying to upload a video. Now that we can make them I need to be able to add them to the website. Unfortunately the T-mobile USB connection is censored and won’t allow Youtube. The web site won’t allow a video file after I used all my cunning and brilliance to reduce it to 2.77MB which is under the 8MB limit.

Oh well bit by very difficult bit I guess. Very similar to getting realistic action on climate change I suppose.

Gopro now mounts to my chest after we decided the equipment I bought in Lismore is crook. The cheap waterproof camera from Walmart does the trick. All I need to do is get the footage to  you.

Did I say I am paddling tomorrow? Yee haa, about bloody time. Man am I fat! The photos are so embarrassing  I censor them. Klaas is more suited to when I am piling up the kilometres. He is a bloody good cook. Will send Con home a wee bit heavier – sorry.

Yesterday we went down to the Gulf of Mexico to check out the route. The departure point will be near the Silver Slipper Casino and behind that is a whole pile of fishing boats. At the boats we met Nicole and Mike who were very friendly and very helpful. It is easy, just head west, go under the big railway bridge and keep going until you hit the next big bridge. Can’t go wrong really.

To get to the Gulf you go through a lot of bayou country. Everywhere there is still evidence of Hurricane Katrina. Even around the coast at Pass Christian there are still lots of blocks facing the water where they have not rebuilt, just concrete driveways to nowhere. A block costs $350k and the houses are huge.

These are on the edge of the lake. They are all new and the gaps are where nothing has been done since Katrina

We awoke this morning to a pea souper and no life jacket so fixed the leak on our taps, bought a life jacket and explored the route through the city.

This from Lake Ponchartrain heading into the city

 The other side of the levee. We go this way.

Klaas giving directions from the levee

A bit further on Klaas and Connor

Buskers on our route

The Mississippi. See why I didn’t want to be in the Gulf in this?

Waiting to get back from the river to meet Klaas. 12 minutes to go past!

Better luck tomorrow we hope.

 Klaas

Hi. Greetings from the great Satan. New Orleans’s French Quarter is still very much alive and swinging with narrow streets and clap board houses all painted in different colours and bars every ten metres with jazz being played everywhere. Just as I remember when I first visited in 1948 as a sailor. The city is modern but the suburbs very greatly . Lots of beggars on the streets and slums with dead cars and rubbish everywhere. The houses are totally different to what we know. Yesterday we went down to the Gulf of Mexico to sash out the site for launching the great paddler and had a nice time seeing how the other half lives. Huge mansions, all new or build during the last ten years because hurricane Katrina flattened the lot. Literary blew them away. A lot of roads are still looking like a war zone, with pot holes and debris in various parts of New Orleans. The place we picked to launch is called Pass Christian and is in the state of Mississippi, having driven through Louisiana. After we launch the great master, Connor and I are taking a boat trip through the mighty Bayou to see some Alligators that inhabit this place. “Gators” as the locals call them. I hope Steve can paddle fast. Regards. Klaas.,

A couple of days ago the fridge stopped working so we got a local fridge man to look at it yesterday. Unfortunately his diagnosis was not correct and after buying a new element we found we needed a new fridge. Would have been nice to know that yesterday, but we have one ordered and have fingers crossed it will turn up tomorrow. It cost $2k but we need a fridge and the van would be worth bugger all without one when it comes time to sell. We could maybe have gotten away with just a cooling unit, but there were green marks inside the covers which means that ammonia had leaked, so better to do it properly.

When we bought the Ford Expedition I should have had it thoroughly checked, but there just seemed to be so many other things to do at the time. Today we took it to have the brakes looked at and the pads are worn right down so that the discs are grooved. We are just putting new disc pads on now. They don’t machine discs here and they are about $130 each to buy. At least in two hours or so we will be safe and won’t do any more damage. Might get new discs down the track but just the pads set us back over $300.

Waiting for a pair of arctic waterproof gloves. Ordered them on Amazon and paid for quick delivery to the RV Park. I had been to Dicks Sporting Goods and found what I wanted but they were out of supply in all local stores. Could I pay for a pair and order them in? Yes, but not to the store. You can only have stuff delivered to your house. They say that if they had them delivered to the store they would be piled up with goods customers didn’t collect. I did suggest that would not be a major issue as they would have received the money for them. Flexibility? Not on your Nellie. The manager said it was impossible. I suggested that customer service would surely allow a customer to pay for something and pick it up in the shop later. Nope, but you have a nice day sir. I had whatever day I felt like. One thing I have learned is that Americans are very systematised and you don’t buck the system.

Many people shop on line and that is a major part of something like Dicks Sporting Goods. Unfortunately their on-line store is not as good as something like Amazon or E-bay. As someone with money to spend and finding the store service lacking they missed a sale. This may well be a salutary lesson about the future. My belief is that if you want to compete with on-line stores then you better have excellent customer service. One thing I noticed in the store is that employees only have access to the web site, just like anyone. Seems to me they have lost the plot. There is no reason to go to their store at all.

The temperature today rose slowly to 8 degrees so you can see why gloves might be necessary. In Victoria in August and the same back of Bourke my hands used to ache until 10.00am, but then they would be fine. Over here there are days that stay below 5 degrees so I reckon they would ache all day without decent gloves. Having just typed this, the sun has come out and the forecast for when Connor arrives tomorrow evening is for things to get warmer with Monday  low 17 deg C to high 23 deg C.

To understand just what is happening here and why the temperature fluctuations are so great try this link that I got from a Climate Reality Leade:

http://theconversation.com/a-melting-arctic-and-weird-weather-the-plot-thickens-37314

Maybe eventually the Antarctic will suffer the same because both poles are warming faster than lower latitudes. That would mean some really cold weather in Australia. Of course the deniers use this as evidence that global warming is a hoax but what can one say if they are simply not smart enough to understand, or too arrogant to accept what experts tell them.

Please listen to this and make up your own mind. It is too confronting for most Australian commercial mainstream media. Or maybe they just find the trip too inconsequential and boring, ie not newsworthy. It is also too radical for some members of Council at Engineers Australia. You can probably guess what I think.

That’s Texas done. It’s pretty flat there so they build road interchanges the size of hills so you get a look at the countryside. Well that’s what it seems  anyway. You ain’t seen roads until  you’ve been to Texas. Also you ain’t seen bridges until you get to Louisiana. Mile after mile, as far as the eye can see there are double bridges across the swamps with at least two lanes each way.

The weather is dreadful. Yesterday they closed schools just up the river because of ice on the roads. Today is better but cold and overcast and miserable. The water is grey and rough and about as attractive as lumpy gravy on ice cream. Oh well I didn’t  come here to be sooky about it. We need to explore and find where to get in and out of the water. Also need to get gloves and a spare paddle as well as duplicate keys for the van and the truck.

Our RV park is about 10km east of the French Quarter where I reckon I will put into the big river. There are amenities such as showers, toilets, and washing and the usual stuff over here such as sewer hook up, town water and 30 amp power. It is quite small and the area is not real flash, but the people are nice and the amenities clean and it is only $188 per week. 7400 Chef Menteur Hwy for those who want to look at google maps.

At the RV Park

Looking left as you come in the door. The table folds down to a bed and so does the lounge on the right

The door is on the right. Klaas’s bedroom in the background

Klaas’s bedroom

I’ve got the middle bunk. To get in you have to be able to put your head on the left and fold your legs up to miss the toilet wall. It would be easier head first but the light is at this end

Toilet and shower

 Klaas

It is true. Everything in Texas is bigger than life. Houses, roads, Interchanges, theatres, restaurants and people. Especial people, never seen such enormous bums and bellies. The week-end was spend putting the mast and sails onto the kayak with the help of my son Nick and he also managed to give us a fantastic meal of lobster tail and crab claws with all the trimmings, after witch we left (,Sunday pm ) and headed towards Louisiana. We camped in pitch black in the middle of the prairie and went to sleep, despite imag ining herds of wild buffalo ramming there horns into the sides ( Where I was sleeping ) or Indians doing a war dance and thinking of my (Bald Scalp) To protect myself and Steve (In that order). I slept with my flare gun loaded under my pillow.Off we went in the morning and crossed the state line into Louisiana. The roads are marvellous and very well sign posted. Every where are over and under passes of massive proportions, The infra structure is mind boggling. There is a causeway running straight through the Bayou, build up on concrete piles, a proper motorway and lasts for 40-50 miles. It must has cost billions. We have now reached New Orleans after passing through Houston, Baton Rouge and many others. The weather is very cold. Regards Klaas