The Queen of Rivers All
When we first kayaked on the Albion River, south of Mendocino in Northern California, it was a magical experience. The Albion is not particularly long, fast, or wide. It has no rapids. No ship will sail it. Some kayakers would dismiss it. But I shamelessly adapted a line from the song Essequibo River and described it as the Queen Rivers All.
We were paddling against the tidal current and the wind, which began to pick up on the way back. I thought about Martin Simpson’s version of the song Essequibo River. It’s a work song. Black sailors in Guyana took a shanty and added African rhythms to uplift themselves while doing intensive tasks like heaving halyard. It even made its way on ships north to Nova Scotia it south to Mexico. They would not have applied it to either kayaking or geocaching but that is what makes it special.
According to the lyrics, Essequibo River is the king of rivers all, while Essequibo Judy is the queen of Judies all. “Judy” was an archetype, a familiar figure that could be invoked to sustain the rhythm. Martin’s version uses “Mary” but the meaning does not change. The refrain chants,”we are somebody o,” elevating Judy’s status and affirming the dignity and pride of the laborers. Say it again, we are all somebody. Somebody o.
The refrain elevates a simply shanty to something far more universal. The more I paddled, the more I heard it in my mind. As Aunty Shanty noted, the song invites innovation and we are free to amend it as we see fit. I used it in my own way to keep time.
A few years later we returned after someone placed a cache that required me to climb from the kayak, over water, to the top of a large snag. I have never been much of a climber so it was the kind of cache where I had to summon a little extra. I again thought of the words that I had come to associate with the river. The river again gave me what I needed, and more.
I am willing to grant the Essequibo River the title of King, and give Judy or Mary my respect, but the Albion is special. To be the Queen you do not need to be the strongest, you have to have an almost indescribable universal quality. Anybody who comes here will kayak on a quirky river. They may even climb up a snag. I don’t know if the cache is still there, but there is an adventure either way.
Anybody who kayaks here will understand why the Albion is the Queen of Rivers All.
My Log
The Albion River. The Queen of Rivers All. Some call it the River of Dreams. It needs no games to provide a reason to kayak. It has long been one of our favorite spots, although we have wondered why there were no caches on the river. We decided to do a spur of the moment trip, and noticed that the lack of caches had been addressed (at least partially).
We entered the water as the morning overcast turned into sun. Trees and the Reflection of trees. Quirky houseboats. Old posts and shells of old boats. The echoes of history. Buddha. Otters. Herons. Dragonflies and butterflies. We took the time to turn into a side channel. An oxbow. Past redwoods and meadows. And then we continued up river as far as the kayaks would take us, making our way into a narrow channel that we could not pass.
Oh yes, there was also this snag.
All it needed was crocodiles in the water to capture that feeling of adventure. Especially as I got out of the kayak, balanced over water, and began to climb.
(06/2015)
