May 26, 2015 - 23:09 | author: Bálint F Gyula | translator: Herkely Dominica | photo: byF
In today's first section we had to paddle in face wind, big waves and in continuous rain. It would not have much sense to rest in the rain, and we did not feel like getting out from the kayak to shiver on the coast, so we paddled until the sun came out. It was 41 kilometers.
When we docked at Calafat beach last night, a mother dog danced around us like long lost friend had returned home. She snuggled to us, almost aggressively demanded to stroke her. We tried to let her go away, but she spent the night under the tarp.
In the morning, when Gáspár and I shifted ourselves from the shore with the kayak, the dog started to whine and squeak. She followed us, ran next to us on the coast. We thought that at the end of the beach she stop and go home, but no, she followed us further. She continued to run, cried, sometimes ran into the water to get closer to us. A bit closer to the shore, the dog threw herself back into the water and began to swim towards us. I do not know what we were thinking maybe if she comes to us we can once again stroke her face? Anyway we waited for her.
When the dog reached us we realized it was a mistake, she tried to climb to us onto the kayak, we almost fell into the water. We had to push her away several times before we had the chance to grab our oars and start to escape from the dog. Our little friend swam back to the shore and ran steadily on the coast. At the Calafat Danube Bridge we thought that finally we left her behind, but after a while she was on our side again. Finally, about two kilometers after the start, at another beach-like coastline she stopped, perhaps it was of another dog’s territory.
Finally at Vidin we caught something to take pictures of it. Above the town, on the shore of the Danube a medieval castle is located, the Baba Vida. It was built on a Roman watchtower’s place in the 10th century. The Turks captured and destroyed if after an eight-month siege, but it was rebuilt after the reign of Ivan Stratsimir. The castle was in Hungarian hands between 1365 and 1369.
After rain in the evening and night, the sun came out for a moment in the morning, but then clouds came back again. The wind was stronger than in the evening, with only made us happy until we were drying the clothes. On the water was not so good, especially because it generated pretty big waves. We were fighting with these waves for a couple of kilometers before the Danube turned left after Vidin. In the meantime, it began to rain again, and I tried to check the sky to see if lightning storm is coming. If it comes, we should go close to the beach where the higher trees. No lightning was coming, but it rained steadily. Sometimes we sent some wistful glances toward the hills on the right side, where the sky was blue in the distance.
While we are paddling, there is no problem, we do not feel cold. But if we stop, it will not be pleasant. Especially for me, because I have to jump out from the neoprene to use the toilet. It was in my head, after twenty kilometers when it was due to have our first rest. I told it to Gaspar, but he was not really feel like stopping either. We were paddling towards. Since none of us used the sun cream in the morning, we agreed to stop to rest when the sun comes out. It was two o’clock in the afternoons when it happened. We docked next to the 758 kilometers board.
Because there are hardly any towns on the Romanian side, we agreed on that Sztoji will pass at the Calafat bridge and we will spend the night in Bulgaria. Since we have already paddled some kilometers on the Bulgarian bank of the Danube, now we got out from the kayak first at Lom where our third companion was waiting for us with Fornetti and cherries. After that we stopped below Dolni Tsibar where we planned to spend the night. Sztoji said that it was not really a good idea to spend the night on the Bulgarian side, because almost the whole bank is very high and the Danube cannot be reached by car from the villages. Finally, he found a land way to the shore, and he was waiting for us. Although our documentation included 70 kilometers in today's distance, eventually it became 85. We almost broke the record distance of Peter and Gaspar from last year.
