Day 29: Warsaw (anchor) to Demopolis, AL, United States

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Day 201
Friday, October 31, 2025 at 7:55 AM
🌙 6 °C
Altitude: 319 m
United States Atlanta 33.7485, -84.387133°44’55” N 84°23’14” W
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Day 29: Warsaw (anchor) to Demopolis, AL
October 31 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 6 °C
[Under construction]
We're up at 0630 looking for a quick getaway from anchorage... but a line of blue running lights away downriver in the darkness evidence a barge tow stopped against the bank and it's soon obvious why - there's fog down on the river. So Preston cooks sausage (not 'sausages') and biscuits, and we have another leisurely breakfast.

We finally weigh anchor at 0800, head out into the stream, and make for the Howell-Heflin Lock & Dam, as number 3 in the flotilla. Howell-Heflin drops us about 35 ft and we extricate ourselves from the floating weed and head for Demopolis.

We're looking for Jones Bluff to starboard and a shart left-hand bend in the river. This will warn us to have cameras ready for some Blogworthy scenery, unique to this place on the river.

The famed White Cliffs Of Epes [EPE-iss] hove into view as we round a sharp bend in the river. This view is an Alabama icon. We overtake a PowerCat and forge on to Demopolis and the Kingfisher Bay Marina. Having docked, I hightail it around the 1 km walk to get to the marina office to book the marina courtesy car for a grocery shop tomorrow.

I return to the boat, have a lazy but well-deserved beverage with Rosie, then we get ready for the marina Halloween Party. Sleep-in tomorrow!Read more
Traveler Nebo has lost contact with us for the beginning of today's run, but most of it is here.
4wReply
Traveler And the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge.
4wReply
Traveler The Epes [EP-iss] cliffs are part of the Selma Chalk formations which were deposited at about the same time as England’s famous White Cliffs of Dover. They’re also a window into what Alabama was like during the time of the dinosaurs. As a matter of interest, the remains of the French-built ‘Fort Tombecbe’ are closeby. Lured by the white cliffs, the French built this in the late 1730s, as they tangled with the British and their Native American allies. It became an important, if largely forgotten, supply post for European settlers and later gave the river its name. During the 1700s the western hemisphere’s three greatest empires looked to the New World as an untapped source of wealth and power. Through trade, colonisation, and military dominance, France, England, and Spain struggled to gain a foothold in the wilds of America. By 1700, England was well-established along the Atlantic coast, and Spain held tightly to La Florida. The French controlled Canada, and a vast portion of interior North America that they named La Louisiane after Louis XIV, the Sun King. The French established forts throughout colonial Louisiane to protect their settlements, strengthen Indian alliances, and hinder English encroachment. There is perhaps no other place on the mainland of North America where colonial powers came so close together than at Fort Tombecbe, situated on a bluff overlooking the Tombigbee River.
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