Tapp's Travels

Sunday, day seven and the mouth of the Danube is within sight.  Well, within a day’s cruising, anyway!  But first we have the delta to explore.  We were told about all the species of birds which would see – or at least would have seen if we had been here a couple of months ago!  With the water level so low (1-2 metres lower than it can be) access is going to be difficult and anyway most of the migratory birds had already done their migratory thing.

We arrived in time for breakfast in the city of Tulcea with it’s massive blocks of riverside apartments…

… and it’s flying fish…

At least we now know what all the hundreds of weekend fishermen are trying to catch!  Even if they only end up with these…

We transferred to smaller boats for our expedition into the narrow waterways of the delta itself.

This delta is a vast semi-triangular tract of soggy ground – some 4152 square kms – the second largest in Europe we are told.  It is delimited in the north by the channel which forms the border with Ukraine – the North Arm – and in the south by – yes, you got it, the Southern Arm.  Did I mention there’s a third arm, the Middle Arm?  Apparently, it receives about 80 million tonnes of silt a year from the river.

Our flotilla of little boats (can you have a flotilla of two vessels?) set off down the southern channel passing a lot of rather second-hand looking boats including the one-time private yacht of the infamous Ceauşescus.

There were even more third-hand ships variously parked on the banks or just run aground waiting for better times.

The small side channels are just that.  Narrow and mighty shallow in parts.

But we did see some white-tailed eagles…

… you are going to have to trust me that that’s what it was!  There were also a few flights of late-leaving pelicans and lots of cormorants and herons of various shades of grey.  Plus a few remote dwellings for commercial (in a minute sort of way) fishermen.

Our tour of some of these small waterways this morning had to be abbreviated before we went aground.

Anyway, back on the ship we headed down the last 50 or 60 kms of river to the mouth of the river.  In this section, the Danube does what all good rivers do.  It meanders a lot.  However, to make access easier the meanders have been cut off by a number of short cut canals (see the map above).

We were told to make sure that our windows were closed before we get into the waves on the open (Black) Sea.  And we are on the third floor!  Let’s hope that’s just careful planning!

Arriving at the Marea Neagra we were presented with an icecream cone each to celebrate.  Also, I might suggest, to take our minds off the fact that the Black Sea is just an open expanse of water!  Like any other sea really!  And, fortunately, flat calm – so we can open our windows again!

So, there you go.  We made it.  1600 kms.  Half way!

More to follow…