This kayaking day happened on Tuesday the 18th of June, 2024. We paddled from Lom to Oryahovo in Bulgaria on the Bulgarian – Romanian border section of the Danube. We had a long lunch break in Kozloduy.

Departing Lom

I woke up with a headache. Our alarm went off at 5:45 and for most of the night, a group of old dudes had been chatting in front of the hotel. Though Jonas and I had both used earplugs, I didn’t sleep well because of the fear to not hear the alarm.

Without coffee, we prepared to go out and kayak. I applied a generous layer of sunscreen. The sun rose and made this beautiful orange glow over the embankment for a few minutes. We wore our water shoes without our neoprene socks.

We walked with our gear the 90 meters to the Danube. I began unpacking the boat while Jonas checked out of the hotel. While prepping some stuff to reapply the silk tape on two sections of the boat, some old ladies walked by. They were friendly and didn’t feel the urge to squeeze our boat. By the time they walked the same way back, I made sure I moved Zucchini enough to not block the path.

We carried Zucchini down the slipway. More people had showed up since we started prepping the boat. We strapped everything in and set out onto the Danube from Lom to Oryahovo, paddling around the floating pontoon.

Starting time: 7:03. Not as early as hoped with a wake-up time of 5:45.

There was immediately a strong current. As we have a little over 60 kilometers to paddle today, let’s hope that stays the case.

A Boring Start + Over Halfway

We hadn’t even fine-tuned our seats yet when we heard the noise of an airplane. It was coming directly towards us from the sun low in the sky. It had a curtain of vapor or some kind of spray behind it. As it passed us, from behind we thought it looked like the plane was in trouble while it flew over Lom. But then the liquid hit us in the boat. Did we just get pesticided? Insecticided? Doing this over a populated place, what the fuck?

We paddled towards the port of Lom with its anchored barges. Looking against the sun, it was difficult to see if anything was moving. The small plane came back and flew in the direction of Dolno Linevo. I tried finding the airstrip from whence it came, but I came up empty.

The temperatures were heating up and my glasses fogged up with the first bits of sweat. I put my glasses a little further down on my face so it has more space to breathe. The reflections right in front of me were kind of maddening. I closed my eyes a lot for the sweet relief from the constant flickering while maintaining an easterly course. Even with eyes closed, I could tell the small twists and turns we made.

The anchored barges were a bit annoying to paddle around. Some seemed to move. We tried to get to their broadside by paddling close to the Bulgarian shore. It was either that or the shipping lane, and I can barely see what’s in front of us with the glaring sun and looking behind is always a bit of effort. It has happened before on the day to Crivina that a pushtow snuck up on us. I’d like to avoid that happening again.

At 7:29, the airplane flew over us again with a fresh bucket of spray. Not much later, I paddled past a giant dead cricket floating in the river. I feel like those two things are related.

It was a very boring paddle that only got more uncomfortable as the hours passed. All that happened was us overtaking floating branches in the river. That was the highest level of entertainment for the longest time. This also caused our minds to want to catch up with sleep. I told Jonas the best way for us to not take a nap right this moment is to start a conversation. While forced, it will eventually lead to something interesting and engaging. This was true.

Two hours in, we’d done about 17.7 kilometers. That makes our speed well above 8.5 kilometers per hour. Though it’s not one-third of the way, we decided it’s time for our first protein bar. I had a special one with rooibos tea flavor from Kaufland in Vidin. It was very good, but there’s always chocolate in protein bars for some reason, which kind of dominated the flavor. The protein bar was tiny but mighty in terms of how filling it was.

One less boring tidbit is that while paddling in this area, we have officially crossed this year’s halfway mark to the Black Sea. We started our trip at the end of March in Mohács, Hungary at kilometer 1447. Somewhere in this area, we must have passed the 723 kilometer sign. Actually, that’s a major milestone in this journey. I kept this information to myself until five kilometers later and I was sure we were over halfway. Jonas was happy to hear it. Sometimes, progress feels so slow. I’m here to celebrate every little highlight as well as the big ones.

We were on approach to the village of Dolni Tsibar. Since Jonas is still quite sleepy, we had this idea to land there and see if there’s a coffee vending machine in the wild. So far, the amount of food and beverage and fishing bait machines in Bulgaria have been astonishing. As if it’s Japan or something. But the main type of vending machine is coffee. And it’s good coffee!

But first, we needed to take a little break on land. I analyzed the satellite map and found a potential landing area about 3 kilometers before Dolni Tsibar. But the water levels were still high (a good thing, I’m not complaining!) and finding a real landing spot was tricky. We kept paddling past bushes and bushes till Jonas found a little lagoon with a clearing on the edge.

We landed at 9:46. There were hoof prints. Cows? There’s farmland beyond the grassy embankment. Jonas actually realized that this wide space would be an excellent camping spot. Plenty of flat space. The one thing lacking is a big tree for shade. But we just got started with kayaking, so let’s not call it a day.

At Dolni Tsibar is this kind of port facility. We saw a place to land with a kayak before it, but we decided that the vibe was too depressing. If we wanted coffee, we’d probably have to walk into town, which is at least a one-kilometer commitment. I asked Jonas how badly he wanted it. Not enough.

The current in Dolni Tsibar was wonderful and pulled us around the protrusion. We had a lot of fun in the eddies as we continued on to the next town: Kozloduy.

A Tiny Rescue + Meeting a Fellow Paddler

I expected things to stay boring until at least Kozloduy, which has a nuclear power plant and a DM. But as I was paddling with my eyes closed for a minute, at stroke 43, Jonas yelled “Iris, you hit a mouse!”

Confused and unable to see for a second, I asked what do you mean? He explained that he saw a mouse in the Danube he thought was dead, but then it moved as the vortex of my paddle stirred it awake. I asked if we should turn around, and Jonas said it’s probably too late.

I looked back and still saw something tiny-mammal-sized and said we should turn around. We paddled upstream against the current for about 30 meters. Without much coordination, we got the mousey on our left, slowed down just a little bit, and I stuck in my paddle in a flat way.

I thought the mouse wouldn’t manage to catch onto my paddle since our speed was still too high and the amount of water on top of my paddle looked like too much, but when I lifted my paddle out, there was one small bundle of wet fur atop of it. One single scoop!

Now what?

I couldn’t use my paddle. The best idea was to go to shore and drop off the mouse in Bulgaria. While paddling there, we took some videos and photos and wondered aloud how the fuck there’s a living mouse in the river.

Option 1: he tried to cross by swimming and got tired. Unlikely?? Option 2: a bird caught him as a snack by his tail, flew up over the river, where his tail broke off and the mouse was free but in an immediate new mortal danger. I think this is what could have happened because it looked like the mouse had a very short tail. Option 3: Mr. Mouse was living his best life on a grain ship, when some human swept him off the deck and he landed in the water. Unlikely because we haven’t seen a ship pass in three hours. Option 4: that damn insecticide plane had a stowaway, who fell off during flight and landed in the Danube. But that’s also been hours and I never saw the plane actually fly over the river.

Anyway, we made it close to shore, but there were only bushes. Jonas suggested to drop off the mouse in a bush, but I said we’re ferrying him full-service to land. It took a while. The mouse was getting comfortable on the paddle after the initial shakes of shock. He was now cleaning himself, sitting on his back two feeties to use his lil hands to clean his face, wiping his beady eyes, using his short tail to balance himself tripod-style like a kangaroo. Frickin adorable.

Meanwhile, a young guy in a yellow kayak appeared to our left. He was further out on the river. Where did he come from? I yelled hello and showed him our mouse as he overtook us. He came closer to us and Jonas suddenly found a nice embankment to drop off our third passenger. I had considered keeping him, but he could probably chew through Zucchini.

We landed at the embankment and as I was about to drop off the mouse, Jonas yelled something else about a frog. What kind of kids’ book situation is this?

According to him, our landing spooked the local frog settlement. One frog jumped and made a sploosh sound, another jumped and made a thud behind Jonas’ ears. We have frog in Zucchini.

I still managed to film the release of our mouse from my paddle onto dry land. I wished there was time to give him a little of our bread as a snack to regain his strengths.

As we had too many animals on our hands, Jonas didn’t want to deal with the frog situation yet, till he felt something squeezing past his butt. He managed to stay calm, but then saw him going further to the front past his right leg and the dry bags. Jonas tried to give me fair warning of the passage of the frog, but nothing could prepare me for the feeling of a rather chonky frog squeezing past me, touching my legs, and then jumping.

I didn’t know where it had gone. I didn’t hear a sploosh, so we had to assume it was still in the boat. The most probable hiding place was in the front tip of Zucchini, aka ‘the fridge’. But I didn’t see anything there. I actually got out of the boat with one leg to make sure the frog wasn’t there. Meanwhile, our fellow paddler had come over to the shore to see what the hell was going on.

While getting back in the boat and leaving, we had a chat with the guy in the yellow kayak. His name is Lukas and he started kayaking the Danube in Tuttlingen. He’s from Germany. He was in a yellow touring kayak that looked sleek and fast, and he had wheels for portaging around dams. If you’re alone, that’s probably the only way how to do it.

Lukas said we’re the first people he has seen in 2000 kilometers. I said we’d seen some day trippers in kayaks and canoes, but no one who is doing the whole river. In principle, Lukas is also going to the Black Sea, but doesn’t know for sure because of the border area with Ukraine. I said it’s probably fine and you just have to stick to the Romanian side. But Jonas and I also still have to dig into this. But that’s still hundreds of kilometers from here. A problem for another day.

We asked him how far he’s going today, and he said he doesn’t know for sure. He will take a break in the next town, probably buy supplies, rest for a few hours, and then continue paddling another four hours at some point. I said we’re going to Kozloduy where the nuclear power plant is at and will also take a break for a bit. The name Kozloduy didn’t ring a bell for him. Funny how he measures in hours and we do in kilometers. The difference is mostly because he will be camping tonight and we’ll probably be in a hotel.

Though we’d paddled together for about 100 meters, it’s incredibly awkward and difficult to match speed and keep enough space between us. Also the chaos from just a minute earlier was still with me and I wasn’t focusing on getting back into the paddling. We said goodbye and off Lukas went. Within minutes, he was out of sight.

When I pointed it out, Jonas was very surprised how well-kempt he looked for someone who camps most/all days. No big bushy beard, no shabby clothes. No life jacket, by the way.

Extended Lunch in Kozloduy

It was a little before 11:00 as we approached the slight left turn towards Kozloduy. There were these amazing cliffs on the Bulgarian shores. We tried to shortcut the bend by paddling a little closer to the Romanian side, but that plan was thwarted by a cargo ship traveling upstream that pushed us all the way to the Romanian side. It’s also really hard to see how far we were from one shore without the context of the other shore.

At the middle point of the bend, there were two people in a motorboat on the Romanian side. I decided to return the wave when waved at.

Next, we saw the power lines spanning the Danube from Bulgaria to Romania. Those are probably from the nearby nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.

Another cargo ship came towards us, which again messed with our timing to cross back to the Bulgarian side in the most efficient way possible. I guess this was a dumb idea with minimal gains. We paddled under the power lines and approached the (reconstructed) steam ship Radetzky, which is a branch of the National History Museum in Sofia. The exhibition supposedly chronicles the life and works of Hristo Botev, a national hero. The rebellion with this steam ship inspired the Bulgarian patriotic song Still White The Danube Undulates.

We didn’t have time or energy for museum side quests and were actively looking for a restaurant or café along the river. The obvious choice from our quick research was Complex “The River” one kilometer further. We paddled past some very nice looking beaches and coves in Kozloduy.

Finding an entrance to the restaurant was tricky. We paddled a long time between bushes, navigating by GPS and scanning for a gap. Jonas was ready to give up and just continue paddling to eat our sandwiches for lunch, when I spotted a gap. We paddled through and landed at 12:17. Without mouse side quest and dodging some cargo ships, I’m sure we would have made it to this restaurant before noon.

After some discussion, we put Zucchini in the semi-shadow of the restaurant’s tall concrete barrier and deflated her quite a lot. We also put our bags in the shadow. Then we went up and ordered food: salad, fries, and grilled veggies with one Staropramen beer for sharing and plenty of non-sparkling water. I took off my leggings in the bathroom to cool down. We later also had two cappuccinos with a fortune cookie-type message. There was this stork down at the shore fishing for frogs. One time, he had actually caught a big fat one. But alas, the stork dropped him after a few minutes of trying to figure out his snack.

The break was long, the longest we’d ever breaked at this rather fancy place. This was in part for my desire to continue paddling after the hottest part of the day. But with a maximum of 35°C from 15:00 till 17:00, there was simply no winning. I tried asking the staff if it’s allowed to paddle around Kozludoy island on the right, which is the branch of the Danube where the Kozloduy NPP intakes its cooling waters. But the guy didn’t know.

The reason why I was becoming so paranoid about paddling there is our experience with Romanian gendarmerie at the little Gogoşu dam, part of Iron Gate II dam. They had checked our documents about a hundred times because of anti-terrorism or anti-sabotage reasons. Funnily enough, they really sabotaged our arrival time that day.

If the authorities can be that nervous with a hydroelectric dam, how nervous will they be with a nuclear site? It’s fair enough that Jonas said I was comparing apples and oranges. Bulgaria is not Romania. We haven’t seen a plague of police on this side—yet. Jonas and I went back and forth over it, not really concluding what to do. Eventually we decided to do it.

Paddling the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant Channel

We left The River at 15:14, fearing the heat and with reapplied sunscreen on our naked parts. Zucchini needed some reinflation. The current wasn’t so strong that we couldn’t have paddled around Kozloduy island and made it into the channel between the Bulgarian Kozloduy island and the Romanian Copanița island, or even between Copanița and the Romanian mainland, which is where the shipping lane goes and where the Jiu river joins the Danube from Romania.

We tried to paddle the 11.7 kilometers rather quickly and not be suspicious. I was nervous at first, but that faded away as I saw so many people (car) camping and fishing on both shores in the Kozloduy branch of the Danube. It looked kind of fun and there was some nice nature to be found.

We even passed a ferry, which on satellite view shows it on the Bulgarian mainland. But it was on the shores of Kozloduy island. There’s no public roads on Kozloduy island as far as I’m aware, so this must be for the foresters that do work there and the car campers with good connections.

As we approached the water intake canal for Bulgaria’s only active nuclear power plant, I spotted some towers to the right. But they looked wrong for a nuclear power plant as they were tall and skinny. But not tall enough to regularly peek above the trees, because that was the first and last time I saw them. The intake canal looked kind of strange. I’m not sure if this is what it’s used for. Looked more like an output canal to me, which is usually located downstream, not upstream.

It was hot in this branch of the Danube. We were sweating and drinking water, hoping for a breeze every now and then. I dipped my hat about four times in the water to cool down my brain. I don’t care which direction it’s from. But the current was good and stable and helped us a lot through these spectacular tree-lined river bends. Before we knew it, we had paddled past the skinny end of Kozloduy island. It was now 16:45.

The Final Stretch to Oryahovo

Outside of the channel, we didn’t expect to immediately have to deal with a ship since the shipping lane is all the way on the other side of the river. But there was this cargo ship in the distance coming upstream. Or is it a cargo ship? As it came closer, we thought it was a police boat. Dark blue on the bottom, white on top. Makes sense to hang out here, since there are more canals leading back to Kozloduy NPP and a little further downstream is also the port of Kozloduy where the russian enriched uranium (probably) arrives at its destination.

When we got even closer, the ship started to turn away and showed us that our first guess was correct. This is just another cargo ship, not a police boat. Perhaps we should get our eyes checked.

At 17:12, we paddled past the cold and hot water channels of the Kozloduy NPP. I know that because it’s mapped like that on OSM. These canals had security booths. Unmanned. I tested the temperature of the water with my hand before and after this channel to see if the water temperature had changed as it had in the steamy waters of Paks, Hungary. On a hot day like today, paddling with Zucchini through hot water would have been potentially disastrous as the air chambers could rapidly overinflate.

None of that happened. In fact, I think all of this was a bit of unnecessary worry on my behalf. Paddle wherever you like. Just look out for steam on the water.

The weather had turned. It was noticeably a little cooler now. The sun was well behind us and lower in the sky. Ahead of us were two electricity towers again, beyond the cranes of Kozludoy NPP’s small port. I looked on the map to see where this was in relation to our target of the day: Oryahovo. The towers marked the start of the town.

The Ogosta River joined us from the right. There were two guys in a fishing boat. I think that little river actually increased our current quite a bit. As the Ogosta river valley also added a road to the shoreline, the peaceful birdsong was drowned out by the noise of heavy truck engines.

Ahead of us we could see the ferry between Oryahovo and Bechet in Romania. As the shore widened, the bits of beaches were occupied by summer huts and houses. People were swimming in the waters. We would have liked to take another short break on land, but there wasn’t the opportunity.

Arriving in Oryahovo

I used my leftover phone battery to check our speed here. At the end of a long paddling day, in the currents of where we’ll be starting from next time, Jonas and I easily paddled 10 kilometers per hour. That’s rather fast for two tired people. So that might give us an advantage when we paddle away from Oryahovo. Never assume the current will last.

As we approached the electricity towers, we noticed they had no cables going between them. Jonas called them decommissioned. Close to the Bulgarian tower were the ruins of a fortress named Rahovo. The port of Bechet with its restaurant, immigration facilities, and long line of waiting trucks was very clear now. The city beach of Oryahovo was close to us on our right, but our landing spot wasn’t clear.

We had another landing spot in mind, but with this strong current, we decided to just go for the first thing that looked doable. We spotted a rocky slipway, which was good enough. Quite spontaneously, we landed there at 18:14.

We began the drying process, but neglected to check up the embankment for a better spot. The park there is super nice and pedestrians-only. We should have portaged our stuff up there where the sun is still strong enough to dry our boat, but also there are trees for shadow for us and benches. In the end, we ended up moving a half-deflated Zucchini up there where we packed it after a short drying period. We’re only staying in Oryahovo for two nights.

The whole day I’ve felt a little itchy in the face. Everything seemed ticklish. And now I was in the grass, bare-legged. We packed up quite quickly and walked out of the nice park onto the soulless road with a lengthy line of trucks waiting to board the ferry.

At the hotel, there was a nice guy who gave us our key. He offered us to put Zucchini in the dedicated room for sports people. There was also a bicycle there from a long-distance cyclist. He asked us how we got here, and I repeated “kayak”, but he replied “biciclet” and asked where it was. I repeated “kayak” and “v ryukzak” and made a noise of deflation while pointing at the backpack in the corner. Once he got it it was like “Aaaah!” and lots of approval.

Our Two-Night Stay in Oryahovo

This is how we spent our time in Oryahovo:

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