The chef has had a hissy fit. Can’t say I blame him though. Everything he touches has sugar in it. First it was coconut cream that tasted like brown sugar. Now the organic beans taste like sugar. He’ll get over it and with his idea of adding sour cream and some curry to his dish it tasted great.
Soaking wet again after a mixed, but mostly foggy day
There’s a pool of water on my seat Con. Wet bum from minute one!
Just like yesterday
First trip out into the current coming up
A sandy beach
What do you see? Nothing. The lighter patch is the sun coming through. The reeds disappeared and this is what I saw. Nuthin’
Some sort of weather station
The fog cleared in a minute when the wind came towards me. Here I am in an eddy carrying me upstream
Amazing what can come around the corner
Look really closely. Behind the barges you can see black posts. This is very important. It usually means I can get behind them
Here comes the fog. It had rolled over me enveloping everything within a minute
Looking back. Just after the start the skipper of the pusher came to the edge of the barge and said “Hey buddy these are all moving towards the bank. You need to get outta here”. I wasn’t going back, the barges were mostly full and drawing 3m and even if they did hit the bank I reckoned I could just get the kayak out of the water. I paddled furiously and took this shot with some relief
No way through here. They were nine wide and six barges long and I was mighty relieved to get around them and back in after about ten minutes slog.
I just liked this shot
Nearly finished lunch
Just another grain handling facility me thinks
If the object of the water cannon was to make sure anyone paddling up the river got wet it worked
Look through the trees. The levee separates the two worlds. On the other side here is suburbia
End of the day looms finally. The cranes are on a ship.
Perfect timing Klaas. We are directly under the bridge here
Had my first river moment today ie the first time where I was challenged by the natural river, not man made things. There was a sharp corner, the only one I have seen. Two metres of mud cliff, boiling current with whirlpools, waves slapping against the cliff and booming back from caverns and thunderclaps overhead. That was a bit over the top I thought because it was all fine, much easier than the dreaded barges.
Also had my first scary bit. It was really gloomy under a wharf and some sort of grey liquid was cascading down. The other end seemed blocked by scaffolding and logs so I retreated back down the river and went around.
35.5km for the day. That’s seven days paddling since the Gulf. Including walking 5km through the French Quarter we are up to 213.6 km (132.7 miles)
Klaas: To all you ” Doubting Thomas’s “a message from me. You all said it was impossible to kayak up the Mississippi against a five knot currant etc ,so now eat your heart out. Stevie the Wonder boy is clocking up twenty miles (No, not kilometres) per day and sometimes more. Wind, hail, waves, he still does it. How he does it I don’t know but it is time you started to recognise his achievements and tell him so. Go on, send him an email and let him know. Klaas.