Today we passed the 860-mile river's signs, so we are already above 2,000 kilometers. We are getting close to the sea, but we still have to go.
In general, we used to wake up at six-thirty during our tour, but now Gaspar and Sztoji agreed that on the first few days it should be 7 am. So the alarm rang at that time, but it was raining outside, so we slept a little back. Gaspar at seven-thirty crawled out of the tent. The sun came out, and the clothes that were hidden from the rain were drying further. We had a breakfast and started the dressing when the border guard's car came again. This time, four of them arrived and some kind of boss was one of them. He also recorded our data, but it rather was just a formality, because, he said his colleagues have indicated to him that we are here, and he came here, because he was curious about us. These officers are very funny, but eventually it's their job to check if someone reaches the shore in this section. They were not the only ones for today, this time as a novelty they came beside us by speedboat across the water and they asked about us and about our journey. They did not even ask for our papers. We had a nice conversation with them and the guard said goodbye with a handshake.
We had already left Serbia behind us, and Bulgaria could be found on the right side of the river. As EU country is probably the border controls are more relaxed. We also recognized that in our second stop no one appeared, despite the fact that 4-5 kilometers upstream we saw a white Logan hiding behind the trees.
After the border guards left, we flipped the kayak up onto the car and went to the dam sections below. On the pebble beach we took back the kayak on the water and were pleased to found out that the Danube has a good strong flow. Our happiness did not last long, because as we were moving down near the island, the speed reduced and toward the end it had been almost standing like a lake. Before we returned to the main branch, we passed through under bridge that goes to the Iron Gates 2 hydroelectric power plant. From the left a channel joined, here a floodgate was developed separately from the power plant.
Not much further down we were paddling again on the main branch, after I made a few pictures of the water power plant.
When we parted from Sztoji in the morning, we discussed the village of Pristol as the meeting point. I only recognized it later, that I divided today’s route into three parts. So now we have to complete longer sections that we used to before. The first part was 30 kilometers. On the beach not far away from us a couple of cows grazed and one was cooling in the Danube. We understood him, because the sun was shining. We took out the solar panels, one was charging the remote control of my GoPro, the other one was used by Gaspar’s phone.
There is not that much to see here in this section of the Danube. The water cuts its way on a loess area, and on the outer part of bends the erosion is strong. This ultimately explains why the towns are built further away on the top of the loess wall and not on the beach. There are places where they are trying to fend the coast from the collapse by installed forests, but it is not always successful. In the picture below can be seen that the first, or the first few alley has been fallen already, the sand was washed out by the river.
By the late afternoon the clouds arrived again. The storm was preparing and it seemed that it was already raining at Calafat. In front of the city the Danube turns 180-degree back, so we were pretty much able to see where our goal is for the night. We did not want to take this turn on the outside arc, so by crossing the virtual Romanian-Bulgarian border line, we paddled toward on the the Bulgarian coast. When the Calafat bridge appeared in the distance, the strong face wind arrived, which whipped up the water thoroughly. We fought with these waves for quite a while, until an island shaded the wind. Of course, sooner or later the island ended, as well as today’s paddling. We ended up on the sandy beach of the Calafat shore on the Danube. Sztoji also arrived with the Tiguánnal, and when we decided where our tents will be established for the night, the rain started to fall. We put together the tent and stretched the tarp out very quickly. Under the tarp we baked delicious delights on the Bake'n'Roll.
The rain continued to fall, even now, when I write these lines. Now I think we will be short of dry clothes in the morning.
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