This Danube kayaking day happened on Wednesday the 10th of July, 2024. We paddled from Ostrov to Rasova in Romania.

Leaving Ostrov for Rasova

With Zucchini down by the river and the dogs barking at every noise, I didn’t catch much sleep. When my alarm went off at 4:30, I was quite ready to roll out of bed and begin the prep for today’s ~50 kilometers to kayak. I noticed my fresh mosquito bites running over a dozen.

Jonas woke up a little later. He made sure we didn’t forget our sandwiches. We finished packing and left the room at 5:14, which wasn’t as early as I’d hoped. Dawn had begun. We’ll probably won’t be on the water before sunrise.

Lady and Marcy greeted us immediately. I think they’d slept in front of the door. Though I am not a dog person (anymore), these two are really sweet. And there’s just something about dogs greeting you with such enthusiasm every time you’ve been gone for 10 minutes.

We opened the gate to the stairs that lead down to the Danube. We could not contain the dogs, unfortunately. But we knew there was a way for them to get back inside their property without our help. I closed the gate behind me.

We managed to carry our dry bags and our duffel bag down to the river in one go. The stairs are still super dodgy, especially in water shoes. The water had fallen by at least 15 centimeters again, so now we had to launch from the jetty instead of the land. I put the luggage on the jetty and asked Jonas to do the same.

Zucchini was still there where we left her, but her right chamber was deflated. As we moved her around, we awoke the mosquitoes in the grass. I inflated Zucchini, hoping that this didn’t mean there was a leak. Lady chased away another dog that was just minding its business. I hope neither cats, dogs, nor humans messed with our boat. It feels like a new leak is long overdue.

Once Zucchini was reinflated, Jonas bravely sacrificed his dry water shoes and walked through the shallow swampy parts to put Zucchini next to the jetty. I pulled her parallel from the jetty and we could begin loading her up. Because we didn’t have to start from zero, the whole setup only took about 15 minutes.

We kayaked away from Ostrov at 5:35, which is our earliest start yet. Marcy stood on the jetty, looking a little sad as we left without her. Damn, should we get a dog?

Sunrise on the Danube

Yay! We made it out on the Danube before sunrise!

I made a point to immediately paddle with dedication. Per our mapped route, we have a little over 50 kilometers to paddle if we don’t take any shortcuts. Supposedly, the headwind will begin at 9:00. So we might have a few good hours to cover something like 25 or 30 kilometers without resistance.

The forecast said sunrise in Ostrov was officially at 5:38, but it still took till 5:58 for the disc of gold to peek fully above the trees. This is probably the most magnificent start of a kayak day ever.

It’s so quiet in this side branch of the Danube. To our left is the island Păcuiul lui Soare. There are the remnants of a fortress founded by the Byzantines and taken over by early Bulgarians. It was the site of a big palace for the Khans with a port for a Danube fleet that managed to conquer Pannonia. Păcuiul lui Soare might also be the site of the Genoese trading post Vicina, though it could also be near Isaccea.

The settlement occupied most of the island, though the only visible stuff is at the downstream end of the island. The river gives a lot, but it also takes. Saving this fortress from the Danube is probably an exercise in futility. We passed a few fishermen on the island at the part where a stone wall is still visible. At least it’s still used for something.

If we’d missed the Jianu Branch to Ostrov the day before, we could have also taken the Păcuiul Branch and then paddled 500 meters against the current to arrive at our accommodation. But I’m happy we didn’t have to.

Reentering the Danube Shipping Lane

One hour in, we were close to the exit of the (second) Ostrov Branch where it rejoins the Danube that has the shipping lane. The sharp left turn around the river island gave us the opportunity to shortcut a bit. There were some boats on the mainland shore far away from us with dogs barking at us from a safe distance.

At 6:45, we were in the Danube again. The reflections on these (still) calm waters were truly incredible.

There were immediately some ships. Two came upstream and appeared from a little nook on the right bank of the river. One gas ship came from behind and we could see it a few times before it overtook us from behind. We paddled close to the shore and still managed to catch some shade from the trees. It didn’t last for long.

We tried to paddle in a straight line as much as possible. The shipping lane passed an island called Ostrovul Scurtu (OSM) or Ostrovul Şoimul (Google Maps) on the right. We kept the pace and we were beyond the island much quicker than I anticipated.

We paddled past the port of Izvoarele at 7:40, a little over two hours in. It has a giant concrete quay that has seen better days. I measured back to where we started in Ostrov. We’ve done 15.5 kilometers. Not the worst speed we’ve had, but it’s definitely declining.

The Bala / Rău Split: Last Chance for Borcea Branch

Next up, we spotted the last chance to get into the shorter Borcea Branch of the Danube. A ship came from behind and overtook us. To our surprise, it ducked into this bifurcation. I checked my map and to my surprise, I saw that this connection has both a name and kilometer numbers. In total, this branch called the Bala or Rău Branch is 9 kilometers long. It enters the Borcea Branch at the latter’s 68th kilometer. Apparently, the Borcea Branch is navigable by narrow big ships.

The Borcea Branch and the branch we’re paddling named Ostrov / Dunărea Veche meet again at two towns called Giurgeni and Vadu Oii. But that’s still more than a hundred kilometers from where we are.

Now that we were over two hours in, we had acquired the right to a protein bar. But I wasn’t very hungry and had some stress about covering as much distance as possible before the forecasted headwind. So we kept going. It was my turn to reapply sunscreen.

Three hours in, the next obstacle was the island in front of the village called Oltina, which Google Maps calls Ostrovul Iepurașul. The shipping lane passes on the left, but there’s a branch on the right that’s maybe a little shorter. At the shores of Oltina, there’s a hotel that we considered going to after we’d already booked our place in Rasova tonight. But for the sake of having a backup in case the wind was too strong, we could perhaps get out here. The only tricky thing is that the entrance to the Braţul Iepurașului has been artificially narrowed. See highlights on the map below:

Jonas was quite confident we’d make it to Rasova today. We slowly paddled past the concrete gap, keeping a safe distance to not get dragged in. A little fishing boat just happened to motor inside that branch as we passed it. Nice to see proof of concept for navigating both the Bala Branch, as well as the Iepurașul Branch.

Beyond the island, we finally ate a protein bar. It was very good. Now we also had to take care of some other needs, so at 9:09, we landed on the river island and had a five-minute break before continuing. The mosquitoes found us within microseconds. Some of them kept hanging around us as we continued paddling. Jonas tried to swat them off the boat with his paddle or hands, with mixed success.

Across from us there was a pumping station with a nice beach next to it with umbrellas and lounge chairs. Very random and it’s not mapped anywhere. You can vaguely see it in the satellite picture in the text above.

Towards the end of Iepurașul island, we spotted a ship or two coming upstream. It had some white on it, so we assumed it was a cruise ship. It disappeared from sight for a few minutes as it took a wide bend to get to our position. At 9:35, four hours in, the ship passed us on our left. It carried parts for a wind turbine, which means its a Dutch ship. In fact, it’s probably a ship we know from the kayaking day from Smederevo to Ram, as it had the website aquabarging.nl written on its side.

The Vigilia II pushed one barge in front of its main ship, shipping a total of eight wind turbine wings. The wake this ship caused when passing us was quite big. Four days after meeting this ship on our way to Rasova, I saw that the ship is near Smederevo, or even beyond Belgrade already as the last known location was already 22 hours ago. Perhaps we should ask them for a ride back when we arrive at the Black Sea.

I turned on my OnCourse app for a bit to track our route and perhaps show that we’re also a vessel flying the Dutch flag, in case they check their MarineTraffic-based AIS all the time. We paddled past the exit of the Iepurașului branch, which looked quite narrow and shallow to be honest. Perhaps it wouldn’t be fun to stay there overnight with a kayak.

Our Luck Ran Out

Though we’d already paddled 29 kilometers and were definitely over halfway, we weren’t exactly safe yet with our arrival in Rasova. We did our best to keep the paddling pace, but it was difficult to stay focused. The lack of sleep was finally catching up.

In the left turn, we also crossed to the left. This was a very beautiful area with skinny trees in the water with little kayak-wide paths between them. Jonas suggested a side quest, but I vetoed it as we still have about 20 kilometers to go to Rasova.

I referred to these trees as ‘mangroves’. Jonas asked me if that’s what they were, but I said they’re not, but just have the kind of mangroovy look about them and appear to have a similar function: preventing coastal erosion. They reminded me of the mangroves we kayaked between in Umm al-Quwain, Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Madagascar. If these trees continue to exist, we might do such a side quest in the future on a shorter paddle day.

At 10:35, we spotted a nice landing spot with one moored fishing boat. We decided to land there to deflate Zucchini a little bit. For a change, we landed backwards so that we’d have easy access to the vents. We’ve been kayaking for five hours. This break went on a bit longer than initially intended and we departed after 10 minutes.

We began crossing back to the right-hand shore of the Danube at 10:55. There were some inconsistencies with the map and reality: more islands than anticipated. I vaguely remember seeing that when doing the research for today. Satellite view has the bonus island that’s next to one called Ostrovul Saica.

As I was analyzing the map and making a judgment to pass it on the left through the shipping lane or on the right between the two islands, the wind started roaring up. I missed the first gust, but Jonas was paddling against it. I said we should paddle between the two unnamed islands, as the narrow channel might give us some protection against the wind. Most importantly, I wanted to cross to the right bank where Rasova is on. If this gusty wind will be anything like yesterday’s on the way to Ostrov, I don’t want to cross the Danube in waves higher than 0.5m with white crests.

Once on the other side, the wind dissipated slightly. Jonas was hungry and grabbed a sandwich. I tried paddling solo, but it was very difficult to make any progress. Once Jonas finished his sandwich, we paddled a bit together before it was my turn to eat.

The Island Shortcut Before Rasova

Though the headwind was terrible, we were kind of lucky that it started almost two hours later than forecasted. Things could have been a lot worse.

After the small unnamed islands, we were exposed again. It was time for Jonas to reapply sunscreen, but we didn’t need to get out of the boat for this. We decided to park Zucchini in the shallow grass on the right while a big ship was passing us going upstream. It carried 3×3 barges, which is the biggest amount I’ve seen this year, I think. No surprise, it was a TTS Line pushtow doing the work.

Next up, we had to find the channel to the right of a bunch of river islands. The shipping lane goes all the way on the left and taking this shortcut will save us about 1.5 kilometers.

The first island is called Ostrovul Uzunada (OSM) or Insula Ceacîru (Google Maps) and the second, larger one Ostrovul Fermecat(ul). We entered the bypass roughly at noon. To our right there was a herd of sheep huddling in the shadow of some trees. The waters were calm at first.

Unfortunately, the shortcut didn’t save us much from the headwind. We had an incredibly tough time getting through here. To our right, more historic sites like the Sacidava Fortress are up high on the embankment overlooking the Danube. This fortress was controlled by Scythians, Getae, and the Romans through history.

At the exit of the shortcut, a helicopter flew over while we were struggling to make headway. A pleasure boat carrying four people ducked into our branch. They were very happy to be out on the water and wanted us to yell back, but all I could give was a nod. We were out of the branch at 13:00.

The small motor boat zoomed back and stopped next to us and asked us where we were from. Confident that the Romanians weren’t mad at Dutch people for winning from them during the Eurocup 2024, I yelled “Germania, Olanda!” while pointing at Jonas and then at myself. They took a few seconds to process this and one girl aboard repeated my answer. It didn’t seem to track that two people in one boat can be from two different countries. I heard “Olanda!” and then they zoomed off towards Rasova on the horizon. Perhaps I should have kept it at Germania and then they might have given us a tow, which I would not be against right now as the wind became unbearable.

My Wrist Hurts + Arriving in Rasova

We could see the town of Rasova. The headwind was very strong and the waves were not a lot of fun, but there were breaks between these long-lasting gusts that presented an opportunity.

During one of the gusts, we landed one last time to have a break. This break lasted for 12 whole minutes while Jonas gave me the coordinates where our host in Rasova wanted to pick us up. It was a full 2.2 kilometers further to paddle than our chosen landing spot. Depending on how the next bit goes, we might have to ask for a location change.

We kept paddling in the current where the wind was beating our paddles and faces, with water splashing up. Still, we were making progress and it all wasn’t that bad. The only problem was that these last 10 kilometers of headwind caused my left wrist to hurt real bad. My ring finger on that hand also felt weak and I was looking for solutions with a different paddle grip to keep going. The kilometer signs on our right were counting down slowly. Some 317 kilometers to go to the Black Sea.

But Jonas wasn’t very motivated to keep going to the landing spot, and I wasn’t passionate enough to plead my case. So when our original landing spot in Rasova revealed itself, we decided to head there.

Three kids were swimming in the water from this little beach, while one kid was standing on shore. We made our approach to the beach and landed Zucchini there at 13:57. Once out of the boat, I asked Jonas if he wanted to wait for this enduring gust to be over and then paddle a bit more, but he wasn’t interested. We were done.

We moved Zucchini to the grassy part of the beach away from the kids and began the drying and packing. I used some water from our bottles to wash the muddy bottom air compartment of Zucchini. This beach exists at the cutoff arm of an old Danube branch, creating a little backwater. There was no shadow here and the wind was very strong, so we tried our best to make it quick. I wonder if this is yet another wind with a name: Crivăţ. If this is the Crivăţ wind, we know it’s worse in winter. Its main direction is from the east or north, so that matches.

Jonas asked our host for a pickup at our current location. He agreed to it and said it would take 10 minutes to drive there. We timed it in a way that Zucchini had just been packed when Bernhard (Bernd) showed up with his small car pulling a big trailer. Jonas spoke German with him. We thanked him for the ride and put all our luggage in the back. Then we drove to his property, which we’d found on Airbnb.

Two Nights in Rasova

This is how we spent our two nights in Rasova:

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