The next hardest thing after having decided to complete a human-powered descent of the longest river on each continent is coming up with a suitable ordering. With the Amazon done I am left with 6 pretty special rivers to complete. How do you choose the next? I have spent a good number of weeks now researching furiously and scribbling notes in my journal in some sort of mad equation hoping to come up with a result. I considered so many factors and by some luck I have managed to make sense of my quasi-mathematics to find a winner.

In 2011, I will make a full human-powered source to sea descent of the Mississippi River in North America (or more accurately the Red Rock – Jefferson – Missouri – Mississippi). At a touch under 6300km this river system is the 4th longest in the world behind just the Nile, Amazon and Yangtze rivers. A whole lot of paddling! I am amped to soon be on such a magnificent river. No hippos, crocs or gun-toting rebels on this descent but a waterway as mighty as the Mississippi is taken lightly at one’s own peril. Complacency leads to mistakes which leads to failure. Not an option for me I am afraid!

I have a pretty accurate put-in date which I will reveal soon, as well as announcing in the coming weeks some pretty cool sponsorship news. I plan to make the descent largely alone (ie. no team), but I would be stoked if anyone were to join me for a wee paddle if they so desired.

I have ranted before about my distaste (or at the very least unease) with continually “whoring” myself in the name of self-promotion. Something I do realise is a necessary evil. I am my own business after all.

But I am super stoked to show you guys today my latest published article. It has been a very good run with articles for me over the last 4 months with 5 features published in some pretty wicked magazines. However the one with which I am most proud appears in this month’s Wend Magazine out of the US.

A gnarly 7-pager, with a bit of everything about this year’s walk across Iran. The photos that the guys at the mag chose from the bunch I sent through came out superbly. All shot with a pretty simple Sony Alpha A230 DSLR (and to be honest a good number on auto!). No matter they look ace!

But it is not just the look of the article, or even the way the words came together which make me so amped. It was the way in which Kyle and his team at Wend approached the task from their end. I had become a little too used to putting together a piece for publishing, emailing it off with a bunch of photos, collecting my money and running for the hills! That is not how it works at Wend Mag. They actually give a toss about what goes into their magazine and make sure only the best makes the cut. Back and forth, with edits and re-writes, ideas thrown about from myself and Kyle, till finally we came up with something they were stoked about.

I have a nice shiny PDF of the entire article which I am sorely tempted to put up here for your reading pleasure, but you know what? I reckon that might be doing Kyle and Wend Magazine a bit of a dis-service. Never fear though! You can get a sneak preview of the article here. Better still you can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine here, for FREE! Hard to beat that! (Just saw I also scored a double-page photo spread in the mag as well, with a shot of the Persian Gulf at the end of my walk. Check out page 4-5. Sweet!)

Nice surf here yesterday. Clean, 1m and sun shining. Not looking so hot for the weekend (waves that is), but hey can’t win em’ all! Enjoy yours!

A hard, hot as hell walk on the first day, a gnarly, big smile river day the next and a day at the beach to tie things up nicely on Sunday. Breaks were spent discussing all the intricacies of mounting an independent expedition. Early mornings spent getting through some tough workouts in the mist I hope woke everyone up nicely. Throw in some bloody nice food and expedition dvds on the projector and I reckon it was a real hoot!

Thanks so much to everyone who came along and grateful for all the help I got from Dave and Holly. Congrats to Sammy also, who won a sweet pair of Zeal Optics sunglasses. Who was the online competition winner? None other than Mister Lightweight himself, Phil Turner!

I will endeavour to get details of the Winter Expedition School up as soon as possible. I cannot wait!

I received an email last week from someone in Iran who had come across my website. They wished to share with me a photograph of their country which I have included below for you guys.

It is a scene that brings back some great memories for me personally but is also very much at odds with the view many people have of the country. Yes, there are a couple of large deserts kicking about there but the Alborz and Zagros Mountains in winter are stunning. As far as the eye can see in open valleys there is nothing but snow. An awesome sight!

One of the very reasons that next year I am organising and leading a trekking and climbing excursion in Iran. I am stoked to be heading back and cannot wait. The 2 week journey will divide it’s time between the Zagros in the south and Central Alborz in the north, taking on a bunch of amazing peaks. With my friend Mohammad from IRAN MountainZone in charge of logistics in country it is sure to be unforgettable. More information coming out soon!

Enjoy your weekend folks!

I am off for 2 weeks to the other side of Southern France for a spot of book writing (I gotta get that done!) and to film a couple of short clips.

Don’t forget to enter the Zeal Optics comp and generally dig life!