Treibgut

Back to the city center after a rather chilly swim in the lush and soft waters of the Sava. Steve’s taking a trip to the hospital after his hand has not significantly recovered. The whole x-ray odysee took several hours but brought clearity that he had broken some part of the middle hand in Novi Sad one week earlier.  In order to get it all properly fixed again he decided to go back to Germany.

Belgrade 1170

Where is Steve? that was what the crew wondered about this day. He’d taken the turnoff to the club-boat esplanade and won’t be seen for the next time.

Full moon, changing weather, all in all we got up to some internet business but a kind of general unorientated state took overhand in which none of us was able to take the lead.

During the whole time in Belgrade a burger/pizza with ketchup/fast food flash burst out within the crew as of 24/7 availability.

Launching at sunrise. A steaming hot day once more. The Danube has widened up some more. Sharp calculations by the crew predict by the time we reach Belgrade we are going to run out of cookies, petrol, bread, garlic and all other important goods.

After a quick check by suspicious forces of the the river police we get saved with a pack of welcome-to-Belgrade super cookies by some happy old fisherman. Thumbs up.

we the last bit of energy we do the Danube city circle tour being rather indecisive where to land till out of the blue we find the secret pirate headquarter. Dorcol. A small shabby marina on the mouth of the river Sava on the foot hills of the impressive fortress Kalemegdan.

Basic, free but piratey. here the local rivermen enjoy themselves playing chess, cooking together and most important drinking from sunrise to sunset. Most of them could be our grandfathers.

With lots of helpful advice we go for a walk to Belgrade downtown ready to fill our bellies with all culinaric specialties the capital has to offer.

Backa Palanka 1299 – Novi Sad 1259

Beatiful morning, waking up in the middle of the moss green lake of Backa Palanka you cant miss the refreshing morning swim. After the usual necessities and preparations we’re floating down the now broader and more polluted stream.

With estimated 45 degrees our brain and body cells start melting or rather boiling…

At sunset we reach Novi Sad, first big Serbian city, welcomed by a cool elderly man who gave us a nice bottle of wine because he liked our “Huckleberry Finn concept” so much.

Friday night Novi Sad downtown checking out boys, girls and bars in the crowded streets of the city center. We find out: Serbia rocks! For there is music everywhere our lost sailor – now legally here- has a problem working out where the crew is hanging out.

DoM JE TAM0 GDE JE DUNAV!

My home is where the Danube is!

Serbian backwater 1380 – Vukovar 1333

Two of us are still awake when the sun  shows up. Three grumpy pirates start the engine to flee from the worst mosquito attac ever!Floating through the foggy landscape – accompanied by egrets and wafts of mist fading in the early morning’s twilight – the first pilot falls asleep and wakes up watching upstream. Navigation does not really get better before breakfast.

on our compulsory walk to the police station we explore weird signs of the past: bombed buildings tell stories about the war we can hardly remember and still dont know much about. Houses facing the street with wild green growing out of windows and doors and the naked skeletons of formerly elegant buildings, next to renovated insurance agencies, supermarkets and brand new hotels. Bizarre aspects of a new beginning like a fancy lingerie store in a last century style mansion full of bullet holes make us wonder about the scars of war, the time of recovering and the way people deal with it.

In contrast to all that we bumped into a bunch of funny people organizing a film festival with open air screenings on deck of an old cargo ship.  Funny enough, they show the German movie “Berlin calling” at the official festival opening tonight. For us, it’s like home entertainment as we towed the * Keks* to the freighter’s side and enjoy the film from our sun deck.

Mohacs 1446 to Apatin 1402

Rise in the middle of swampland we start the with a delicious pancake breakfast. brunching down the Danube for several hours we enjoy the marvellous southern Hungarian landscape with long sandy beaches, blue sky, green wild forests and lots of animals.. Anchoring at one of the atlantic ocean like islands right in the middle of the river we paint figures in the sand and feel like kids discovering a new playground. Unbelievable that this is the same stream that flows through Kelheim and Regensburg! Checking into brand new port in Apatin Serbia – border police oh oh.. We all end up with no passports, some passports locked in the police office, some were never there.

In a kind of fancy fish restaurant we treat ourselves with a big dinner – not quite sure if we are to spend the next night in Serbian jail..? At least some of us..

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.

to the gas station and back with 2 empty cans

From Wesenufer (2192,5) to Pupping (2157,5)

Leaving the small village in the rain after some of us woke up with wet sleeping bags and matrasses due to holes in the plastic roof. Not to forget another visit of the riverpolice, this time the Austrian one. We put on our rain gear and try to stay tough  though it gets more & more cold, wet and nasty.

Arriving at the watergate Aschach we are greeted via loudspeakers: “HALLO KEKS!”. We should go through the gate in about 30 minutes, so we decide to have a soup. But when the lights turn green “Mercury-Baby” gets bitchy… so we miss it that time and have to wait another 30 minutes, hoping the engine will work by then.

We realise that we are loosing our sense of time more & more. “What time is it?” – “dark” …  “What day is today?” – “the second day of rain!”

is scho recht … passt eh ..

From Passau (2230) to Wesenufer (2192,5)

After another internet & shopping action we had delicious breakfast and left our last technician Stef in Passau; not to forget a short visit of the “strolizei” – riverpolice (Strompolizei) with open door. Half the crew keeps sleeping on deck, while the other half is steering and reading out stories to each other. We pass the border to Austria having discussions about the differences between German and Austrian toiletpaper… it starts raining and we get pulled into the next watergate by a tiny traditional wooden boat. After putting on our life-vests we feel save enough to go through.

it keeps raining, raining, raining, so we decided to land in a little Austrian village and enjoy the restroom facilities in the restaurant next door.

Our Keks made it! Finally, it is in the water – after we had overcome quite a few obstacles on our way to the harbour..

On Monday 7/20 the big day had come when we did the transport from the garden where it lied it before to the harbour in Sinzing. Therefore, we organized two experienced men (thanks again, bernd and martin)who came with a tractor and a trailer (which seemed to be a bit small to us) to get us there. We managed to fit through a pretty narrow railway underpass, then to climb a 14% incline.. At the harbour our Keks was craned off the trailer and put on the ground for us and our kind helpers (especially ingo the metal worker and all the others who came) to fix the extension at the end of the raft (an extra barrel on each side). As it was being put into the water it was a thrillingl moment for us – you can’t do anything anymore – it just has to swim! But it did. And it floated even better than we had expected! When we were paddling to our place in the harbour, we were really happy to be here – on the water with nice people, just enjoying the evening sun while sitting on that homemade little raft! Even if it looked a bit scruffy beneath all those polished yachts, we were really proud of our ugly duckling! So we stayed on bord for another few hours and had a little picknick.. 

Unser Keks hat’s geschafft. Trotz einiger Hindernisse auf dem Weg ist er jetzt endlich in seinem Element gelandet… Am Sonntag haben wir noch die Metalladapter für eine Verlängerung angeschraubt, die Fender angebracht und die restlichen Bodenbretter draufgenagelt. Auf den einen oder anderen Helfer musste man zwar eher aufpassen, aber dafür leisteten andere Arbeit für zwei… Danke an die, die nicht nur die Biervorräte minimierten! Abends war der Keks dann soweit transportbereit, jetzt fängt das Zittern an.

Montag früh ging’s dann los: Kein Werkzeug vergessen, alle Beteiligten organisieren, von Schlosser bis Kranführer und Transportteam liefen die Fäden bei Steffi zusammen.

Vormittags haben wir mit Miniventilen und Fahrradpumpen die Fässer ausgebeult und sind dann später die Transportstrecke abgefahren, da wir mit diesem schrägen Gefährt nicht auf  jeder Straße auftauchen konnten. Kenne deine Feinde! Unsere hießen Bahnunterführung, 14% Steigung und Baustelle…

Der Transport an sich war für uns eine zittrige Angelegenheit, der Keks hüpfte ein bisschen auf seinem Anhängerbettchen herum, nach vier Jahren endlich wieder den Duft der Freiheit in der Nase! Die Namen der Dörfer, die auf dem Weg zum Wasser liegen, sind exotisch, Bergmatting und Alling die normaleren Kandidaten –  als wir dann aber den Sinzinger Yachthafen erreichten, und der Keks dann wieder friedlich schlummerte, waren wir gezwungen, ihm mit wilden Kranereien den Schlaf zu rauben. Zuerst vom Anhänger auf den Boden, dann die Verlängerung hinten drangeschraubt, und als vorerst letzte fremdbestimmte Aktion: das letzte Kranen ins Wasser.. So stabil ist der Keks, dass er sich kaum bog, kaum krachte und am Ende optimalen Tiefgang zeigte. Wir paddelten ihn zu unserem Platz am Gästesteg, vielleicht von den kleinen glänzenden Motorbooten als hässliches Entlein verspottet, aber stolz wie Harry. Der Keks fährt sich erstaunlich leicht durch den Katamaranunterbau und liegt gut austariert im Wasser.

Nach diesem Tag voller Umplanungen und schräger Aktionen, Zittern und Überraschtwerden belohnten wir unsere Helfer und uns noch mit einem kleinen Picknick an Bord, schön endlich auf dem Wasser zu schaukeln…