This kayak day happened on the 15th of July, 2024. We kayaked from Cernavodă to Hârșova with a very leaky left air chamber and quite a strong headwind.

Leaving Cernavodă for Hârșova… THIRD LEAK!

My alarm went off at 5:00 and Jonas’ at 5:30. I’d had an unsettling dream about kayaking, but I quickly forgot what it was about when awake and getting into the paddle day grind.

We left the hotel a little before 6:00. There was a lady near reception who asked us if we’d used anything from the minibar in Romanian. I said no, and we left without problems.

Yesterday’s attempt at finding a better launch spot to continue kayaking to Hârșova had come up empty, so we walked back to our arrival spot under the bridge in the Danube–Black Sea Canal. The water levels seemed to have fallen a little bit. Several ships were already passing through the canal with early light, including one that carried actual containers. I think it’s the first time we’re seeing that on the Danube.

We pumped up Zucchini at our old arrival spot, which was still glass-free. This spot is under a 30° angle, so it’s a bit tricky and probably resulted in Zucchini being wonkier than usual. Jonas suggested we could have kept it symmetrical by pumping her up not parallel to the shore, but perpendicular. But then we couldn’t walk around the boat.

The first issue we encountered was a leaky valve of the right-hand air chamber. The flaps inside seemed to have succumbed to fatigue. We could have just placed the cap on and hoped that would hold the air, which it probably would have. But we chose to use our new big Boston valve instead, leaving the old one just hanging out. This solved the problem.

Once Zucchini was inflated, I reapplied silk tape to the spots where our paddles sometimes scrape. This rarely happens to me these days because I’ve somehow managed to adjust my paddle stroke to avoid the issue. And I don’t even have to think about it these days.

After all that, we put the boat in the water. Jonas immediately noticed that the left-hand air chamber was soft. Shit. He listened if the valve was just not tight enough, but there was no air coming out there. Shit, that means we have a new leak!

We decided to just pump up the left air chamber again and get cracking. We’ll just pump up again and again and again as we go, just like the day from Vukovar to Ilok (bottom chamber) and the day from Sviniţa to Dubova (left air chamber, as well) and hope for the best. Except those days were all under 35 kilometers. Today is about 50…

At a late 6:37, we paddled away from the Sfânta Maria Bridge.

Kayaking Out of the Danube–Black Sea Canal

Paddling against the current in the Danube–Black Sea Canal wasn’t too tricky at first. We made good progress on our way out, paddling past all the places we had tried landing at when we arrived in Cernavodă.

I wasn’t too thrilled to start our day with 1.4 kilometers against the current, but we really tried to find something better. If there’d been a hotel in the next village after Cernavodă (Dunărea or Capidava), I would have voted to stay there, even if Cernavodă is the bigger town and has a nicer hotel.

As we were about to exit the canal, two cargo ships tied together came downstream, the Zeus and Vladimir I. A guy on the bow was filming us while we were working hard to exit the canal. He waved at us, and we waved back. It’s still nice to acknowledge each other.

The final fight out of the the canal was quite some hard work, but at 6:53, we felt the current neutralizing and eventually turning in our favor. Wheee!

But now we were in the area of the Cernavodă port authority. We paddled past the police ship. I tried to look if the red kayak from the Austrians was still there, but we weren’t on that side of the water police pontoon and it’s very difficult to see such a small target from this angle. So it shall forever remain a mystery if the Austrians stopped their trip in Cernavodă or continued… Unless they overtake us today.

There was a man on the pushtow boat moored at the police pontoon. We just said hi to each other. Thankfully, the police didn’t stop us to ask to see our Romanian crew manifest. That would have been a gigantic waste of time that might have fucked with our best two hours of paddling we have in the morning.

After that, we had to deal with the port of Cernavodă. A lot of big ships need to make a port of call stop here, so the anchorage area is full of ships and barges. We zigzagged between them closer to shore than to the shipping lane. None of them were moving, thankfully. We also passed another ship with wind turbine wings. It had a Dutch flag and goes by the name Excelsior, so I thought it might be part of the aquabarging family as well, though I later found out it’s not.

I still looked for better launch spot, but didn’t find anything till this (44.36036° N, 28.02626° E) spot. It would have been too far to walk for us and Jonas really doesn’t want to rely on taxis.

Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant Hot Water Canal

We kept paddling towards the power lines ahead of us. There were many birds in this area resting  on the anchored barges. And I saw the first swans in a long time. Why weren’t they on the Bulgarian Danube? Was it the high water levels?

Beyond the power lines, we were approaching the hot water canal from the Cernavodă NPP. I expected there to be nothing, since the Kozloduy NPP in Bulgaria also didn’t let out any hot water. The last time we paddled through actual warm, steamy Danube water was in 2019 in Paks in Hungary. Back then I already thought it was super sketchy in an inflatable boat.

I wasn’t really paying attention, and loved the anchored pushtow called Straubing. Flashbacks from Danube kayaking in 2019. When we could look into the hot water outlet, we saw it pushing out loads and loads of water. This NPP is in overdrive, possibly because all of us are using aircon non-stop to survive. I saw a mist rising two centimeters above the water near us. As one does, I stuck my hand in. Shit! It’s warm!

I wanted to get through this as quickly as possible. Jonas and I started paddling faster to get to the part where the waters are mixed better. But then I looked at the left air chamber and saw it was wrinkly. The fog on the water to our right stayed with us for a surprisingly long time.

We made a five-minute stop on the Danube’s right bank at 7:37 to pump it back up. This is not how I hoped to spend my first hour paddling today. And the fact that we even made a break within the first two hours means that I have a hard time tracking our progress.

Pumping Up Again and Again + Dunărea and Capidava

We continued paddling and had to pay close attention to the map to see which route to take near the village of Seimeni. I occasionally stuck my hand in the water to see if the temperature went down. Slowly, it went back to normal Danube summer temperatures.

The small river islands ahead of us had a few options. For the first, we stayed in the shipping lane. Then the shipping lane went left and we stayed in the center.

We passed our first kilometer sign of the day: 291 kilometers to the Black Sea. At one point, there would have been the option to take the narrow cut between two thin river islands called Ostrovul Chici and Ostrovul Lung to our right. With the falling water levels, we didn’t take it, but it would have been interesting.

As Jonas wanted to shortcut the next curve, which might leave us in the middle of the water for a long time, I suggested to land again to pump up Zucchini’s leaky left air chamber. We managed in three minutes on another horribly muddy spot. It’s a miracle neither of us fell over or lost our shoes to the suction. We continued at 8:35.

At the village of Dunărea with its cliffs and storks flying low over the flat water, we were all the way on the left bank next to Balta Ialomiței. It’s easy to forget that the left shore isn’t the mainland, but also a river island. We tried hard to make progress while the leaky boat was constantly on the back of my mind. At least it kept me awake.

After Dunărea, the river bends a bit more right. I suggested to cross again so we could maybe stop in Capidava at the riverside restaurant for a cup of coffee. Once we crossed, we pumped up Zucchini again in eight minutes till 9:24. This time, Jonas left the pump attached to the valve. We could see the town of Capidava in the distance.

The first ship of the day appeared around the river bend in Capidava. The shipping lane was all the way to the left, so we were good on the right-hand side. It took them a long time to get parallel to us. We ate a protein bar just before Capidava with its ancient fortress, weighing the pros and cons of stopping for a cup of coffee.

In the previous days in Cernavodă, Jonas had watched the wind forecast closely. Today was the best day to make our run on Hârșova, but it had said there would be a strong headwind in the afternoon at 15:00. Then this morning, the forecast changed and it said that the headwind would be a lot less strong than anticipated.

But we should really know not to bank on the weather forecast. Especially regarding wind.

I snapped some pictures of the Dacian-Roman-Byzantine fortress of Capidava, which was quite well visible from the river. We ended up not going for the restaurant as we would have wasted too much time there in the early morning. According to Google, Kal Family Restaurant would have been open and a short walk from the Danube. Now that I’m writing, there’s also an accommodation mapped in Capidava… Google Maps makes me so angry each time it decides not to show me what I’m looking for. Perhaps it would have not been real.

Headwind at Topalu

It was now after 10:00 and we crossed a bit over to the left again to shortcut the river bend, followed by another crossing to the right on approach to the village of Topalu. At 10:25, Jonas pumped up Zucchini for the first time from inside the boat. That worked reasonably well! At 10:40, we reapplied sunscreen as it had been more than four hours. It was also getting hot now. There were some cliffs with bee-eater bird holes in it, followed by cows cooling down in the Danube.

Just as we approached Topalu, the headwind began. Though this cooled us down, it also quickly became a battle. As we paddled in front of the village, I saw more buildings that looked like hotels or holiday homes judged by their repetitive design.

There were many people out at the water, either fishing or preparing to fish. Beyond Topalu was a beachy-looking area with one single iconic tree. We hadn’t pumped up Zucchini in a long, long time, so we decided to stop there at 11:26. When landing, I still expected the mud, so we tried to paddle onto the land with some speed. But it was sandy and there were shells from small mollusks, like on a beach at the (Black) sea.

We took a break there while some people a bit further downstream were swimming in the river and bathing their two horses. They had occupied the shadow of that one tree and seemed to be enjoying summer the way you’re supposed to (according to the ads).

We continued at 11:34. The next village is Ghindăresti, which is the last village before our destination Hârșova. But with this kind of wind, nothing is certain.

We kept paddling and actually felt a good current, which was also visible on the water at times. The Danube bent more to the right and we entered an area where the shore was well-forested. At 12:17, we decided to have another break there to relieve ourselves and pump up the boat. But before we did that, we decided to smash one slice of pizza each. That hit the spot, although I was first worried it would make me nauseous in the boat. We continued paddling at 12:42.

The headwind kept our heads cool, so there was no need to hat-dip for me. Jonas had already begun the process. As for the practice of hat-dipping, I think the moment you start it, you have to keep doing it to keep cool. So I try to not have to do it for as long as possible and drink a lot of water instead.

Speaking of water, I’d asked Jonas to give me a big 2L bottle of water to put in the ‘fridge’ of Zucchini. This is in the hopes of keeping the front of the boat weighed down during headwind. I’d just read a thread on Women Kayakers Facebook group for tips against ‘windcocking’. The consensus seemed to be to weigh the bow down, although they were all talking about hard-shell kayaks instead of softies like Zucchini. Still, I think it helped a lot and might have saved this day to Hârșova.

Shortcuts and Bathing Cows to Hârșova

During our longest break of the day, Jonas checked his map and saw that the TID person also had a break on land a few kilometers from here. Might they have paddled in similar headwind conditions as us? Anyway, we continued paddling. The wind was tricky, because it was basically long gusts, followed by periods of calm. The periods of calm give you a sense of security that’s completely unwarranted, as the gusty periods drain your energy rapidly.

We turned another corner and saw the town of Ghindăresti in the distance. We were paddling during a low-wind period, so we were optimistic about just paddling straight towards the town. Sheep and goats to the right of us were chilling on the shores.

And then the headwind gust picked up again. The cliffs of Ghindăresti had something going on that looked like the humble beginnings of a dusty tornado. I saw the geography in front of me unfolding like I’d memorized it from the map. On the left shore, there were some islands. Jonas had asked to paddle between not this grouping of islands, but the next one before Hârșova. Because the TID either shortcuts or paddles between them. It appears that the TID in 2018 or something like that paddled here in very similar conditions. Perhaps we should heed their caution.

During a particularly bad gust, I said that I wanted to cross to the left bank. The waves that result from these extended gusts hadn’t begun yet, so there was a safe window to cross. Our right air chamber was still well-inflated, so any waves on that side wouldn’t flood our boat or make us tip. But the left chamber was slowly getting softer.

Once across, we were headed towards the gap. Lots of birds made their home in these peaceful backwaters we were about to homewreck for a few minutes. This seemed to be the home of geese, mostly. Luckily, none of them decided to fly up as we paddled past them. One of these days, we’re gonna get shat on.

There was a single white cow on the small island on the other side of the channel. As we were headed in there, the cow decided the island was too small and headed into the water and swam across. Just her head was sticking out above the water. It was very impressive to see a cow swim, and it reminded me of all the zebus we’ve seen in Madagascar.

The cow exited the water on the other side and looked so happy post-swim. She found some leafy greens and chomped them while trotting off to somewhere.

Island Channels

In this island channel, we experienced some respite from the wind for only a short time. Jonas pumped up Zucchini again while we were floating. We passed another river island where the tail end featured an entire herd of cows. They looked like they were also about to cross, but it was a bad place. Had they crossed, they would have had priority as I don’t fuck with mammals that big. They’re kind of terrifying.

Beyond the herd, the power lines, and with the Măcin Mountains vaguely in the distance, we saw the town of Ghindăresti with its massive Orthodox cross on a cliff. It looks kind of nice. I wish all these towns had a small hotel or a guesthouse of sorts, just for wayward travelers like us.

With the headwind back, our first priority was to get into the next island channel. But it took a long time to get there. Meanwhile, we spotted a cow on the left shore, just chillin’. I’m very happy we’re on the water and not on land, as they generally don’t bother to get into the water for no reason.

There was a stranded green buoy under a tree. We decided to have a little fun side excursion and hold on to it. Perhaps one day, I’ll snatch a buoy in the middle of the river. We used to have touch-the-buoy challenges while dinghy sailing in Mauritius all the time. Without fucking them up, why wouldn’t we do the same with the Danube buoys?

We passed even more swimming cows to our left at the 261 kilometer sign. To our right, the village of Ghindăresti revealed its Orthodox church. The cliffs look very nice at the monumental cross.

It was 14:24 when we were about to head into the next island channel. It was between some unnamed island on the left and the bigger Ostrovul Cătinu Mare on the right. This is the route the TID chose.

While the wind died down, the current did also. And we were simply exhausted at this point.

It was very difficult to keep the spirits up, but it was necessary. After we arrive in Hârșova, we’ll need to immediately fix the leak in Zucchini. It has to happen today if we want to have the option to continue paddling in two days. And we do want to keep that option open.

We were so close, yet so far. As we’d turned quite far westward, the eastern wind sometimes felt like it came from the back. Though it wasn’t a constant wind, it would have been nice to have a kayak sail for these moments. Damn, I’m really sad it broke for the third motherfucking time.

As we’d ignored our leaky left chamber for literal hours by now, we needed to land for our human needs and the needs of Zucchini. Once we were under five kilometers to go to Hârșova, it was time to land. None of the options were good in this little channel that was so peaceful and beautiful. We tried landing somewhere at 14:58, but the combination of muddy, slippery shoreline and a deflated Zucchini meant that it was pretty much impossible for me to get out of the boat. And the minute we touched land, the mosquitoes swarmed us. We decided to keep paddling until we’d find a better spot.

If we find one.

Arriving in Hârșova

We headed between a small island (Ostrovul Puiu Zătoacei) and the left bank (Balta Ialomiței) of the Danube as a final shortcut. The TID also takes this route, so there’s proof of concept. We immediately spotted some baby ducks. It’s so incredibly beautiful here. I wish we were less tired and could enjoy it to the max.

I mean, just look at this:

At 15:35, we could see the end of the channel and the beginning of Hârșova. Some industrial building on the other side. As we prepared to exit the channel and re-enter the shipping lane, we took some last photos of this little backwater. Jonas pumped up Zucchini from inside the boat one last time. There were big dead mollusks floating. The season for mollusks on the Danube has officially begun, as it had in 2019 in Hungary.

We tried to time it well. We could see the current in front of us. Once we’re in there, we have to immediately cross the 400 meters to the other side to land in Hârșova. I could see one red buoy to my left. That’s one delimitation of the shipping lane. I couldn’t find a green buoy (yet), but saw the cliffs of Hârșova with its Carsium ruined castle.

The minute we decided to go for it at 15:51, we spotted a shiny Orthodox church in Hârșova. I wanted to take a picture, but it wasn’t important right now. A few seconds later, we saw a ship coming upstream towards us.

Shit! Let’s paddle faster!

Luckily, Jonas and I were in tune about what to do. We knew we could cross in front of it without the ship needing to slow down for us. As long as we kept the pace with the last energy we had for the day. Though it was going upstream, it was quite fast as its cargo was empty. We looked at its starboard side, then the bow, and finally, the port broadside. Nice, we’re across. We checked with the buoys and it was all good. They won’t do any sudden movements now.

On the other side, the current picked up a lot. The wind wasn’t bothering us anymore. We passed a grassy (unmapped!) island that’s the reason for the shipping lane being all the way to the left. Re-entering the main Danube was a bit of a mindfuck.

We paddled below the cliffs of Hârșova at 15:56 after we’d crossed in full. The whole crossing took about three minutes of hard work.

I’d hoped to make it to Hârșova before 16:00, but we paddled past the potential landing sites at 15:59. We were searching for the best possible spot, as close to the hotel as possible.

There were two spots better than right in front of the hotel. One was a slipway next to a Romanian water police base. But a group of children just arrived and began swimming there, so that was ruined.

After that, there was a floating pontoon, light colored. That’s important so we don’t burn our feet. We decided to land there.

In the end, it was 16:05 when we finished our paddle day from Cernavodă to Hârșova. And we were exhausted. A young couple began swimming from the pontoon while we landed. They were cool; they didn’t bother us…

[Continue reading below at the off-day section to find out what happened when the gang of children arrived at our pontoon]

First Swim in the Danube

A few hours after checking in, Jonas and I walked to the stairs into the Danube suggested by Iulia. We were still wearing our kayak clothes, so it was no big deal to just hop into the water. It was a really refreshing swim and actually our first swim in the Danube this year. I hope to still do it again. The current wasn’t too strong, but it was certainly noticeable.

Our Two-Night Stay in Hârșova

This is how we spent our time in Hârșova:

Good read? Ponder buying me a cocktail!

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