Sailors
Fighting in the dance hall.
Oh man!
Look at those cavemen go.
It’s the freakiest show.
Take a look at the lawman
Beating up the wrong guy.
Oh man!
Wonder if he’ll ever know
He’s in the best selling show.
Is there life on Mars?
- bowie

When Cassini-Huygens sent back the first pictures of Saturn’s Moon, Titan, it was somewhat shocking.  There in grainy black and white images were mountains, coastlines, lakes, rivers and oceans. The first time humans had seen such “earth-like” features on another world. Of course Titan is not a vacation spot.  It’s average temperature is around -289F (-178c) and it’s lakes are filled with liquid hydrocarbons. Titan is not the next paddling Mecca.

However since my crazy brain can imagine any weird fantasy I want, I’m thinking maybe I could go back in time and paddle on Mars.  Yes, I’m building a time and space ship in my back shed as a winter project!  And yes, it does look a bit like the Tardis. . . so what?, It’s my fantasy.  Until the ship is ready I’ve been doing my research.  Evidence is continuing to build that a few million years ago Mars may have had liquid water on its surface.  Recently with that in mind, artist Kees Veenenbos imagined what the watery surface may have looked like.  Pretty much like the image above.  Getting there however is not quite as crazy as it sounds.

You’re actually looking at a slice of the Chilean coast in South America.  This part of our planet with its reddish landscape and dry salt flats is amazingly similar to that possible Martian past.  I’ve found myself staring at this coastline a lot recently. Something about paddling this coast line intrigues me.  Here you could imagine exploring that time in the history of our red sister planet.  When the last oceans of Mars were slowly disappearing into the ground or slipping away into space.   Along the Chilean coast  you could paddle almost 400 miles from Antofagasta to Arica with very little between but desolate Martian landscape. If someone was crazy enough they could add hundreds of miles more.  As it is the challenges would be enormous.  Just getting there would be a task. (There is an airport in Iquique) Then once on the water there would be no opportunities to resupply between the main towns and fresh water would be hard if not impossible to come by.  Dangerous winds filled with sand and salt could come out of nowhere, to scream down the barren mountains and turn the sea into a boiling caldron. At least the mild coastal climate would be on your side.  Then of course long periods of isolation whether physical or psychological can do funky things to your head.  Much of the time your VHF would be worthless. (Who’d be around to hear it?) You’d certainly want to do this trip with a partner or team of well chosen paddlers.  Still all that said, noting the risk there is something amazing there.  A science fiction thriller where you and your mates have landed deep in the history of a lonely red planet just in the moment when  the last of its life’s blood is slipping away.   No. It wouldn’t be Mars.  But it would probobly be as close as a sea kayaker is likely to get.