Posts Tagged ‘usa’

The Riverman: John Ruskey of the Quapaw Canoe Company of Clarksdale Mississippi is the only commercial paddler who braves the currents of the Mighty Mississippi River. Jillian and I joined him on a 3 day trip.

The big old river is known to the locals as ‘off limits’. The currents, whirlpools, eddies, its almighty power of a high volume river, not to mention 2 meter large Alligator Gars that will eat your body once you have drowned in its murky waters, have put the fear of god into the people. This is starting to sound right up our alley!

John is trying to educate the people and show them that if you know what you are doing the river is a beautiful goddess rather then a devils toiletbowl. As long as you have respect for the river it will treat you well and you get to enjoy exploring the sandbars, islands and bow lake swamps full of wildlife. Wild boar, coyotes, beavers, rover otters, deer, ducks and geese are among them. We camp on soft silky sandbars, watch the full moon rise out of the campfire, while John is preparing his favourite blacked Catfish dish over the open fire.

After 2 nights camping in relatively good weather, a storm blows in from the south. Before it can do real harm we get to our landing spot where I come eye to teeth with a ome meter long  Alligator Gar. The juvenile has been caught by a fisherman and left on the bank of the river. No respect for nature! A day later we read about three fishermen who disappeared on the river, never to be found, the day we got out. You’ve got to respect the river and treat her right.

Check out this multimedia slideshow with sound about our trip, You will find out that John Ruskey is also a gifted Blues Musician

It is a gray winterday when we arrive in Clarksdale, first real stop for us on the Delta Blues Trail. We only have one night here so we are trying to get the best out of it. The first big surpise is the Riverside Hotel. The old wooden building was once the only hospital for colored people in the region. Since 1941 however it has been transformed into a hotel by its owner Frank ‘Rat’ (“you are thinking of a rodent! right?”) Ratcliff. Rat has had the cream of the crop of blues and rock ‘n roll artists stay at his place. Proudly Rat shows us around the Riverside hotel. Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, JFK Junior, The blind boys from Alabama, Sam Cook, they all stayed in one of the cosy rooms filled with furniture from Rat childhood till present

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Rat sure knows how to make people feel at home. In the corner of his ‘office’ stands a guitar for general purpose use. When joining him on the old couch, he tells stories about times long gone…. or are they? Recently Clarksdale started to climb out of recession as tourism is slowly starting to pick up on the great number of Juke Joints and blues bars.

from thursdays to sundays, every place in town has live music. It is Saturday night so we dicide to paint the town. First is the well known Ground Zero Blues Bar, owned by Morgan Freeman, who obviously next to affinity with Clacksdale also saw the possibilities to do something here. Ground Zero has managed to attract big names as well as local talent  to perform life. Tonight is quiet, although there is nothing wrong with the quality of the band. A group of young women are dancing while others play a game of snooker or chat at the bar.

At 1130 we decide to check out Red’s bar. This is a real Jukejoint: The dark place where the band is lit by the neon light on the wall, and with only 2 meter to spare between the band and the bar, you are immediately surrounded by the blues. 50 people would probably more than fill this place up to the brim. Red, owner of the club, has been drinking tonight and decides to give everybody shit. Most people just ignore him and enjoy the battle between the guitar and the harmonica.

Here in Clarksdale, the heart of the Mississippi Delta, the blues became big. It was here on the crossroads of Hwy49 and 61  that the legendary  Bluesman Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his gifted guitarplay. It was here, where Muddy Waters Grew up in the cottonfields to become one of the biggest heroes of the Delta Blues. It is here, where the Blues tradition is passed on to the next generation. It is in their veigns and part of their DNA. Being in Clarksdale was a unique experience and I know for sure that I will be back here some day.

Finally we are back online with our blog. I spent hours to make this blog fit in with the rest of the site, and off course our Photoshelter archive . The archive came online last november after Digital railroad went belly up.

So now that the archive is online again and the blog is up and running, we can finally start working on the things we really like to do: Searching out the latest adventure, travel, and diving stories for you.

Next week we will travel to the Deep South of the USA. Jillian and I have been invited to cover the Memphis International Blues Challenge. Being a blues buff myself I really wanted to go there, but working mainly for adventure and travel magazines, the question is: how are we going to get any publication guarrantees on the music theme?

After shaking the publication tree we managed within a very short period of time to get 4 commissions in 3 countries. So in the coming weeks you can expect to see our coverage of the Southern US states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Lousiana. We will follow the music from the soul to the rock ‘n roll, via to Mississippi blues to the Cajun and Zydeco music of Louisiana, to end in the music capital New Orleans. There is too much to do and see in too little time, so lets hope that the itineraries for the next 2 weeks work out.

Oh yes and lets not forget the fact that we will also be Canoeing on the Mighty Mississippi River and in the Cajun swamps of Louisiana.