We are arriving! At some point we start wondering if the widening up water on the horizon is already the sea and soon are convinced it is. It’s time for a cocktail on the roof and let the Keks taste the salt water! So we pass Sfantu Gheorghe and go for the beach to jump in the waves…

We made it. This raft has made all the way to the sea!

Anyway we left happily floating on the main channel and its loops towards the big black ‘C’.

And it was in one of those loops that the engine suddenly stopped and we had a Jesus like experience as the water (in the middle of the stream!) was very shallow and we almost could walk on the water (at least it looked like). Everybody had a walk in the Danube before we pushed the Keks free again. Rene and Steffi walking aside as we continue downstream…

Lateron we find a little island with a beach, land there to find out if it is a beach-beach or like last night a muddy watery sink-in-trap. We decide to keep going (more sink in than beach) while Radu – on the other end of the island fishing – will be collected later… In lack of good landing spots and Steffi wanting to anchor with water all around anyway we opt against a deserted ruin and a ‘dry’ spot. Funnily enough we find an almost perfect place just before sunset. Steffi still wants to anchor, throws it and this is the end of a lovely, long and truthful relationship between the anchor, Steffi and the Keks because the rope broke and now the anchor will rest in pieace in 4m dept.

Leaving the lakes towards Sfantu Gheorghe we get back to the main Danube channel and its shortcuts. In the village of Murghiol, apparently the last village on our route accesible by road, we fill up water tanks and leave the boat-parking-loop to land acouple of hundred meters upstream (20 min) on a beach that looked nice but turned out to be a sink in adventutre. Standing in the watery sands (feet sinking in deeper the longer you stay) Ilie and Radu fry a lot of crap (ro.) eh carp (en.) and we enjoy a really nice meal inside our lil’ hut.

So then we turn left into the Sf. Gheorghe arm, the wildest of the three main arms in the Delta, keen on going zig-zag across the channels. We missed the first turn as it was missing resp. only existing on the map and take the Litcov channel instead. Even highly concentrated navigating did not save us from hugging trees and knocking sleepy pirates on the roof into the land of dreams again by softly stroking them with willow branches…Better wear your helmets.

Trying to find our way to a lake for the night we meet local swamp people with and without teeth asking them for directions. But the delta is big, the channels are longer than expected and our map is more of a general overview than really useful for orientation. It starts getting dark and so we take the next ‘almost landlike’ spot to stay for the night. It turns out to be another mosquito paradise and an area where fishermen like to drive highspeed without lights through dark and narrow channels.

We had a really great time going horse riding, rumbling around the forest crawling into caves, visiting old health resort Baile Herculane with a nice bath in the sulfuric hot springs and strolling around the village marveling at watermills and alambicos to produce Rakija (local spirit)  that seemed to be from a different century.

Ilie with the wood for his new living room

The four remaining pirates experienced the sensation of sleeping in a proper bed again, having a warm (boiler heated with wood) shower almost everyday and having great food made in a proper Romanian kitchen in more than one pot… We washed our clothes, shaved and felt a bit more like humans in the 21st century – except the surroundings felt like time travel.

There goes a big Thank You! from all the crew to the family Popescu, who made everything possible and didnt avoid cost or effort to love and entertain us as guests and friends.

After about a week in this beautiful Romanian village we started thinking about our lifes after this legendary boat trip. Some had to go back to uni, others had to find a job and everybody had to get back somehow.

So we sold the motor and left the *Keks* parked on the property of the friend who bought the motor. There it is waiting for us to come back next summer and go tothe Delta and the black sea.

Then the boys left direction home and the girls started off direction Bucharest to enjoy the Romanian capital for a couple of days.

Now everybody is back to their landlubber life, the little pirates inside are sleeping until next year…

We get woken up by musica folkore. Turish-balkan-gipsy beats and singing puts an end to our sleeping in.

As we are short of essential supplies such as bread and there is no shop around, we decide to go to the Decebal restaurant next to our landing for coffee and french fries. This is un unusual combination also in Romania and maybe thats why we had to wait quite some time for our take away chips and instant coffee.

We untie our raft from the private property and start off. The weather is changing, a bit cold and gray, so soon everybody backs out reading a book, steering with headphones, staring into the sky or enjoying the impressive landscape of the Iron Gate.

Suddenly there´s screaming and waving on the left river side. We draw closer and make out four guys standing on some landing. Steffi recognizes her Romanian friend Ilie Popescu, we pull over and after a heartily greeting of Ilie, his father, his cousin and a friend of them we leave this place – now with Ilie on board – towards the Base Nautica of Orsova where we will leave the raft and go to Ilie´s place in Toplet, a little village about 10km up the river Cerna.

But having arrived at the marina we happen to meet the Romanian border police who want to trouble us. It turns out to be a waiting game which we win in the end thanks to our native friends.

Once we´re done with paperwork we drive off to Ilie´s house where homemade Rakija (local spirit) and a delicious hot meal from Mama Popescu are waiting for us.

We leave with gray sky, our friends from last night gone fishing for hours already. It is windy and as there is almost no current because we are not far away from the Portile de Fier/Djerdap I watergate we get along quite slowly.

We try imagining the scenery some 25 years ago, before the building of the two huge watergates. Water was 30m down and there were island and whole villages the older people tell us about that are never to be seen again. Some kind of Danube Atlantis… Some of the villages were “moved” to places higher up, othersjust drowned forever. The famous turkish influenced island Ada Kaleh for example is now part of the underwater landscape.

The Iron Gate was very feared by the fishermen at that time though and probably we wouldn´t have made it through the sizzling floods with our little wooden raft.

So in a way we are happy we don´t have to fight the strong waters, on the other hand it is less exciting than I thought this passage would be.

As night falls we keep going until we really cannot see anything but black shades of mountains on the sky anymore. Landing gets quite interesting in the big bay of Kazan, but in the end we make it. Just to find out that Romanian border police is approaching. Suspecting trouble we are quite surprised when they leave after checking our passports, a call to the local police station and writing down our names.

In the end we have a nice hot soup and go to bed.

Ritopek 1141 – Smederevo 1115 – Nowhere beach 1104

Leaving the rubbish pile behind towards the former Serbian capital Smederevo to restock supplies. Skyscraper impressions with overhangs and individually designed balcony empires…

A Russian-Serbian fisherman stops by for a chat. He keeps talking in Serbian and Russian we keep understanding very little but for the essential parts – fish? yes!  vodka? yes? – it’s enough. After this nice little exchange (3 shots of vodka from us for about 4kg of fresh river fish from him) we gotta gut the fish. Everybody goes for it, we take turn steering so everyone can have some fun.

Later we found a beach where we started a barbecue for estimated imagined 10 people (heaps of fish, potatoes and other veggies in tinfoil, stuffed champignons…). In between plastic bottles, old shoes, river shells and strange industrial sounds from behind the gravel hill the Danube fish got grilled. The little spiky, pointy nose fish found lots of  ‘friends’ or rather eaters whereas the so called Danube flat fish who due to many small spines wasn’t loved as much.

Belgrade 1170 – Ritopek 1141

After a last walk to the petrol station/bakery we leave our kind friends in Dorcol. Back on the Danube, we face a strong wind and blue-gray waves, which give you the impression of being on the sea.

In the evening we land in Ritopek, rubbish village. Colourful plastic bottles, bags, glass, every kind of rubbish was in sight. people on tractors drove by.