Treibgut

Backwater 1745 to Island nearby Esztergom 1716

When we were stretching out yawning , we got strange news from a brave guy approaching by canoe: two of our friends seemed to look for us in a camp ground nearby – handing out flyers to everyone! Weird.. We have expected them to come on bord in Budapest! However, when we went to that place to go and get them, a man tried to give us “fries” instead of “friends” – but they were gone. We were continuing our way downstream when a ear-piercing sound woke us up in the end.. Sleepy (because they had been driving the whole night through) the guys were crawling around in the warm sand.. After a short stop in Esztergom, we had the second amazing wild camping nature highlight in a row! Having defended us against fucking nasty mosquitos, we had a dinner which was pretty deserved, cooked ocer a big fat bon-fire.. It was to be a long night playing ring of fire..

Komarno 1765 to Backwater 1745

Mo was having a nice slovakian conversation being still sleepy (”elektro, elektro” – “dobre, dobre” – “drink? water drink?” “njem napi, njem napi”) which tells him in first line not to drink the tab water. After a phone call, the water suddenly turned into drinking water! For we had to go into town, we stopped at a posh landing stage surrounded by tennis courts, two fat houses and a super professionally equipped “club house”.. The guardian and us decided in consense that our Keks can stay exactly 1.5 hrs – but look! Until 3:30 pm! Dobre, dobre..

The way was full of obstacles, all we wanted was an open internet cafe, someone draw us a map: “It*s a hotel” – that was where she was – ” It*s a park” – she pointed at the piece of paper again – ” it*s a internet cafe!”. We hurried there, found it closed and finally occupied 3 computers to keep this site updated, everyone working concentratedly and staring at the screens.. Our excellent fishing skills were stopped in a quite abrupt way: A motor boat cut our rod string – no fish in the keks*s  pan..

When the sun came down we found an awesome beach where we wanted to drop anchor that night. Problems with the current and waves pushing us against the sandy ground forced us to anchor right in the middle of a beautiful backwater just around the corner.. What a wonderful place to fall asleep and see the sun again in the morning..

Bratislava 1865 to Cilistov Gabcikovo-Channel 32

We started off in the strong current which reduced more and more until we found ourselves in the huge Cunovo dam. Fortunately, the wind was not too strong, so the Keks was chugging slowly but surely througha surreal landscape with stony “lake-marks” which showed us the way..

Our stop for the night was a abandoned landing stage where grid and water wrote their own history.. Its shabby look had its own beauty – though we first had to get used to the weird smell..

Vienna 1926 to Bratislava 1865

We had some trouble with our friend the washing machine and our own stupidity: first the machine did notwant to be in our services, then two of us thought too much or less and everytime we went to check it took us about 20 minutes…

Finally, we casted off. With us on bord: Ines. She drove us through the biggest wave so far, cool and relaxed not knowing the circumstances before.. That wave broke in our home, keks was shaking and all our herbs were swimming in their cages feeling like water plants. Enjoying a funny “taxi” ride to the station in Bratislava, we were stunned by the big red sun (hanging over ghostyy sovyet apartment blocks, huge sunflower fields) and slovakian pop music…

Tje evening flair, the beautiful houses and buildings in the city center and all the colourful illuminations were really breath- taking.

Cilistov 32  to Komárno 1765

Almost 80km! Got up at 5:15 am to avoid being bothered by wind and waves in the artificial Gabcikovo Channel which is a pretty wide black-walled section of the Danube where small boats can be endangered by certain circumstances. Mo was sick – hanging over the railing or suffering in bed – and Steffi and Kathi swapped each other from time to time for not falling asleep while steering. Having landed at a club looking quite close, an old woman came out of the landing ship and started takling to us in slovakian language. Soon everyone tried to communicate until we understood that one of miroslavs daughters came to translate..

Klein Schönbichl 1972 – Vienna 1926

The last day with Margit our early bird is a cloudy and windy day. Due to the lack of current because of watergates we float along with high speed of around 3 km/h.

The landscape gets flatter, the Danube wider and the wind stronger…

Finally we reach the city of Vienna, last big city before the wild wild east. Ines, Kathi R. and the guy from the boat next to us visit us and we all enjoy a nice and warm night on the *Keks* in the harbour Marina Wien.

Spitz 2018,2 – Krems 2000 - Klein Schönbichl 1972

What shall we do with all the ***  sailors in the morning?! Only one of them is right awake – running straight to the supermarket, the old part of Spitz (downtown) and finally having a nice little walk through the amazing vineyards. As petrol stations in Spitz close at 8:30 pm, another drunken sailor went there in the morning to get some other essentials. Stop-over in Krems: difficult but proper landing, delicious coffee (needed!) but then we found Margit holding on to the peer with all her ‘manpower’! broken cleat!

Nevertheless, we left the ‘Wachau’ behind (with all the nice current and scenery): our local dealer ‘Hofer/Aldi’ / ‘Shell’ provided us with a gourmet lunch – petrol for Mercury (the motor baby) / amazing salad for the crew. Still being fascinated by that extraordinary wine from the ‘Wachau’ we had some trouble finding the right harbour (nearly missed it) because of 4 peaple trying to vote. For dinner the gourmet day was continued: Kässpatzn (traditional pasta with yummy cheese)!

Grein 2079 - Spitz 2018,2

Leaving the beautiful village of Grein we start off early in the morning. Today we travel the longest distance ever! Moritz the Brave goes for a swim in the icy floods with his life jacket while the others enjoy sitting in the sun.. We pass two watergates into the Wachau (most famous wine area of Austria). We meet Tom, Alex, Dominik and Sina the Dog from Black Ham (LandHAM – BLACK Sea) speeding along the Danube to the Delta within 5 weeks with their dinghy and army equipment.

Spitz offers a awesome scenery and a marvellous Heurigenlokal (traditional bar at the local vineyards).

Linz 2132,5 – Grein 2079

That day will be kept in our minds because of several breakdowns which were kind of related to a big watergate..:

One of the sailors crashed our boat hook and transformed it into a captain hook finger replacement and a monstrous magic wand, one thought he lost his beloved communication device – and last but not least our stirring system broke down. So one of us  had to sit down in the nice and comfi primary school seat to navigate the ‘Keks’ through wind and waves.. With that huge blind area there was a need of 2 people to get to Grein safely..

Pupping 2157,5 - Linz 2132,5

We wake up in the beautiful warm morning sun. Finally, we are able to use that magnificent sun deck! Floating through Linz we failed not one but two times to land somewhere – strong current and stony beaches were too big challenges for ‘Keks’. Linz: Strange modern buildings (silver cubes, glass and steal everywhere) tell their own story about the cultur capital 2009. An exhibition attracts its visitors with ‘crap’ (should it seem to break a taboo?), a mini-train chugs through the whole town carrying lazy tourists around.

In the evening, we had 2 young people on bord who told us stories about Linz, p.e. the new building on the riverside (AEC) which should look like a ship and which is dangered to float away because of its construction.. Some of us explored a crane: the nightly view over the roofs of Linz was awesome, especially the near industrial area looked just perfect being illuminated by those whitish spots and lights..