Since the 25th Anniversary of the James River Batteau Festival concluded this past Saturday at Maiden’s Landing, just outside of Richmond—the Virginia state capital, I thought it would be appropriate to write about river life for my first guest blog. [Regarding the spelling of batteau: when you see batteau – that’s one boat, when you see batteax – that’s more than one boat.]

Back in the 1990’s as member of the Kiwanis Club of Lynchburg I had my first opportunity to live river life for a week. The Kiwanis Club at the time sponsored one of the batteax that made the voyage from Lynchburg to Maidens Landing—a seven-day adventure!

My first time out I wasn’t too thrilled about being on a batteau in the James River so I volunteered to drive the chuck wagon to each campsite and set up tents and prepare the campsite for when the crew would arrive each evening. Part of the process of this unique event is the early morning shuttle. Each day, we had to move a number of cars and the chuck wagon to the next campsite (usually a state park or private land next to the river). Once the cars were parked, everyone would cram into one car for the ride back to where the batteax were being readied for the next leg of the journey. It was usually a 30-minute drive from campsite to campsite, but for the batteax on the river it would take about 6 to 9 hours.

After six days of setting up camp, the crew finally convinced me to step aboard the batteau (ours was called the Travelogue). They promised me it would be “smooth sailing” and there would lots of water and no rapids. They were right, it was the easiest day on the river and at one point, we made a makeshift sail out of an old rain poncho and literally sailed toward Maidens Landing. After that I was hooked and traveled with the crew of the Travelogue for the next several seasons.

Though I haven’t been on the river in about 10 years now, each year I make it down to Percival’s Island where the batteax depart from Lynchburg to take photos. New batteax and crew show up each year while others retire like the Travelogue, but several things always stay the same. The James River, though always moving downstream, still has the same water, falls, sloops, rocks, and channels. The country side along the James shows off it’s cow fields, farm houses, river trees, and the occasional factory. In places the river is still shallow, deep, wide, narrow, fast, or slow and little channels meander around small islands here and there.

Besides the river, the people who make the trip stay the same—River People. Some river people are the same year to year, others become river people after leaving their business attire in Lynchburg and spend one day on the river.  One right of passage to become a true batteau-man or batteau-woman is to fall over board either by having your pole get stuck in the bottom of the river and tossing you off or by manning the sweep at the front or rear of the batteau and sweeping yourself off the boat. My first time at the sweep before being christened by the river took about five minutes! River people are family. Whether they’re on your batteau or not, if they need help you give it to them, if you need help you just ask. They all work hard, play hard, drink hard, and sleep hard (at times, the snoring outdid the crickets’ night sounds!). River people have hearts bigger than Texas! They would give their life to save someone else’s if need be (though there have been some close calls, thankfully in 25 years no one has ever had to do that).

To sum up years of experience on the batteau from the perspective of being on the water and on the shore, a week on the batteau is an experience that cannot be matched anywhere else in the world. The river will charm you and at times frighten you. The river people will welcome newcomers with open arms but will give you a pole so you can earn your way downriver. At the end of the week you’ll walk away tired, bruised, sunburned, and extremely happy you made it all the way.

Batteau life is not for everyone, but for those who can get past no showers or flushing toilets for the week will do just fine.