Tour du Teche

The Tour du Teche — a 135-mile canoe, kayak and pirogue race through the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun Country — is scheduled Oct. 3 to 5, starting in Port Barre and ending in Berwick.
Berwick Mayor Louis Ratcliff said, “We don’t have a Shrimp and Petroleum Festival like Morgan City or Patterson has the Cypress Sawmill Festival, so this is our community’s festival.”
The Berwick portion is a one-day celebration that includes a craft show under the U.S. H 90 bridge, music, food and more.
Ratcliff estimated about 1,000 people attended the 2013 edition of the event.
“We’re looking forward to it. Plans are already in place. … We cooperate with Tour du Teche, getting everything ready, and we hope it will be even better (this year). We’re hoping for good weather,” Ratcliff said.
The race is entering its fifth year and is now organized by a board of directors: Ray Pellerin, Ken Grissom, Linda Finley, Trey Snyder and Billy St. Blanc. Partners include Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau, St. Mary Parish, St. Landry Tourist Commission, St. Martin Tourist Commission, and Iberia Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Paddlers for the race will pass through four parishes, woods, swamps, cane fields and a dozen communities.
The race begins at the Port Barre Boat Launch and travels 135 miles down Bayou Teche where it will end in Berwick at the Southwest Reef Lighthouse on the Atchafalaya River.
Tour du Teche will have three racing stages: Stage 1: Gabriel, Port Barre to St. Martinville, 49 miles; Stage 2: Chitimacha, St. Martinville to Franklin, 59 miles; Stage 3: Roughneck, Franklin to Berwick, 27 miles.
There will be shorter race routes, Voyageur divisions, open for participants which include: Crawfish, Port Barre to Breaux Bridge, 34 miles; Acadian, Port Barre to