This question was sent to me by email. These rowers wrote me the following message about traveling the Danube in a boat that’s too big and heavy for portaging around the dams. Theirs is an ocean rowing boat, which I later found out are almost as big as a small sailing yacht, with indoor sleeping spaces and all. When writing the response, I thought of turning it into a mini blog post to help fellow Danube travelers.
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Their message: Are the locks downstream of Ulm operational?
Hi ,
We are curious about the locks downstream of Ulm on the Danube. How big are they, you mention in your blog they are closed, do you know how we find out information on the locks opening times as we would like to do it in an ocean rowing boat. So definitely no carrying her around the lock.
Warm Regards,
Jooles and Ian
Team Stronger Twogether
My response: Contact rowing clubs (or start further downstream)
Hey Julia and Ian,
Awesome trip you’re doing! I did the Ulm to Budapest section in 2019, so quite a while ago. May I suggest you join our Facebook group, Danube River Source to Sea? Some people in our group have traveled this section of the river this year who may have valuable information.
Now what I know:
From Ulm downstream, there are locks on every dam. According to Google Maps reviews, they generally work and are big enough to fit small live-in vessels. For example, this review near Böfingen and this one near Höchstädt. In my article(s), I wrote that the locks don’t work because they probably only work seasonally (spring to autumn) when people take their motorboats out. We were there on the early side of the season.So yes, if you can’t portage, there should be options to go through the locks. But I don’t have info on how to do it efficiently. I emphasize efficiency because there are so many dams on the Upper Danube – mostly between Ulm and Kelheim – that it will be an issue multiple times in one day to deal with. Each time it will take at least 30 minutes, by my limited experience with the self-operated lock in Vohburg. My suggestion is to contact a Ruderverein (German for rowing club) in every town to ask them. There are two rowing clubs in Neu-Ulm with phone numbers to call: the upstream rowing club and the downstream rowing club. If you check the map further downstream, there’s the rowing club of Lauingen, which has a great website with photos of their rowboats going through the locks during special events. Downstream from there is the rowing club of Neuburg (which is where we camped back in 2019), the rowing club of Ingolstadt (where the TID begins), Kelheim (on the Altmühl River), Regensburg, Straubing, Deggendorf, Vilshofen, and Passau (on the Inn River). They will also have information for you.
A last resort is to Google the phone number of who is in charge of each dam. I’ve found this website of the upper dams from Ulm to Donauwörth, and this one for the lower German dams from Bertoldsheim to Passau. There are more dams, rowing clubs, and hydropower companies in Austria.
Only after Kelheim, you might be able to rely on the big ship locks, as the cruise ships and cargo ships will have to pass through those. I would still expect the people of the lock to be difficult with letting you in at times, as you’ll likely experience the full rainbow of lock operators, from super helpful to grumpy. I wonder how big your boat is that it can’t be portaged with the help of some wheels. If you need to get from sea/ocean to the Black Sea like a big boat, you could travel upstream via the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal as well. Some kayakers in our little Facebook community have done that this year. If you’re not an EU citizen, you should also keep in mind how long you can stay in the Schengen Area, as Bulgaria and Romania have joined Schengen as of the 1st of January 2025. This means that the only Danubian country you can wait out the 90-days-in-90-days-out policy on the way is Serbia.
I hope this was helpful and I wish you a good trip down the Danube River. I’d love to hear back from you when you’ve done this complex stretch of the Danube.
Happy paddling,
Iris // Mind of a Hitchhiker
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