Updates & Photos

Here you will find a collection of updates, photos, and videos of Pascal's journey to the Black Sea, compiled and commented on by Thomas in chronological order.

27. September 2017

Day 50: From Somovit to Svištov – 54.3 km – 7 hours 25 minutes – 12,328 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,905.5 km

07/09/2017. Imagine a large island in the middle of the Danube. It's one of the most extensive across the whole course. There aren't any people on the many islands. Finally a place that is only for animals and plants. It is an area that is constantly flooded. And as a result heaths and white poplars can thrive in their natural territory. Cormorants, red-necked grebes, black-headed gulls and many other rare water birds find a home here, are able to nest undisturbed, and look after their young. One of these islands is called Persin, after the daughter of the former pasha […]
27. September 2017

Day 49: From Orjachowo to Somovit – 69.4 km – 8 hours 3 minutes – 14,748 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,851.2 km

06/09/2017. She grows up in a small German village in the Banat, in the middle of remote hill country in Romania. In her loneliness she begins to speak to the plants, and they become her best friends. Later on she moves to the city, wanting to learn Romanian, speak it, and understand it. After school she begins studies in German and Romance Studies, and later earns her crust as a translator in a machine works. At some point she is asked if she could write reports about one or another of her colleagues. She simply can't. She refuses. And from […]
27. September 2017

Day 48: From Lom to Orjachowo – 63.1 km – 8 hours – 14,184 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,781.8 km

05/09/2017. Right from the earliest stages of their evolution people have been drawn to water. They settled at rivers, lakes, and seas. The water provided them with something to drink, and to eat; it watered their livestock, enabled farming, and ground grain. It is the ultimate lifeline, and it's not for nothing that humans themselves are made up from 70% water. And so it's even more surprising that the northern, Romanian bank of the Danube, that Pascal is currently passing, is so sparsely settled – not to say that it hasn't been settled at all. This southern region of the […]
27. September 2017

Day 47: From Vidin to Lom – 49.0 km – 6 hours 30 minutes – 11,408 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,718.7 km

04/09/2017. If we think about Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and the rest of the Balkans, regions that Pascal has been paddling through for weeks, then you can't avoid one particular topic, the treatment of the Sinti and Roma. Headlines on the topic are generally thought-provoking or sad. And somehow we can sense that we probably carry one cliche or another of this people group within ourselves. But if we ask the question of what we actually know about the Sinti and Roma, regarding their history, their traditions, where they come from, what they do, the answers soon dry up. Migration to […]
27. September 2017

Day 46: From Cetate to Vidin – 20.5 km – 2 hours 45 minutes – 5,217 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,669.7 km

03/09/2017. 500 years. No other European country was ruled for so long by the Ottomans as Bulgaria. Until 1878 the half-moon flag flew on the countries roofs. For a long time Bulgaria was considered unexplored by the Western Europeans, foreign, even, oriental, the very edge of the civilised world – "the least known area in Europe". Today Turks still constitute a significant minority in Bulgaria. They make up close to 10% of the Bulgarian population, and their party often holds the balance of power when it comes to forming a government. In addition, there are Pomaks, Tatars, and Circassians, who […]
27. September 2017

Day 45: From Gruia to Cetate – 37.9 km – 5 hours 30 minutes – 9,438 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,649.2 km

02/09/2017. Pascal heard of him through an ARTE documentary that Pascal watched a few months ago. He is a famous Romanian poet and writer who apparently built a cultural centre and guesthouse on the Danube in Cetate, and lives there today. He was one of Romanian literature's great hopes, but because of his poems and writings criticising society he fell into disrepute, and ended up on the radar of the Securitate, the Romanian secret service. A provocateur, an enfant terrible for those in power. The inevitable happened. Ban on publication in 1987. He had to give up his job as […]
27. September 2017

Day 44: From Zike to Gruia – 40.0 km – 7 hours 45 minutes – 11,778 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,611.3 km

01/09/2017. The ideal destinations? You might think of France, Italy, or Spain. But Romania? Hardly. And yet this country has so many features to offer. Cultural treasures like the old cities of the seven castles, the Maramures' wooden churches, the orthodox Bucovina monastery, the powerful Ceaușescu Palace in Bucharest, the Dracula myth, or the brilliant vocabulary of the Nobel Laureate in Literature, Herta Müller. In addition, there is the untouched nature of the Carpathian mountains, the domain of the pelicans in the Danube delta, and the endless steppes of Walachia. Simple, farming village life with all its traditions and customs […]
27. September 2017

Day 43: From Drobeta Turnu Severin to Zike – 40.0 km – 5 hours 30 minutes – 11,378 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,571.3 km

31/08/2017. We are writing at the end of August. Pascal has now been underway for six whole weeks. The time is flying by. Now that he has also completed the middle phase of the Danube's course, it's on into the last third: the lower Danube. It is characterised above all by extreme weather conditions. In summer the temperature usually blisters at around 35 degrees, and in winter falls at times to -25 degrees, so that the Danube freezes and shipping is halted. For Pascal there is a high chance of a heat wave. The infrastructure (roads, railway, harbours, etc.) has […]
27. September 2017

Day 42: From Orsova to Drobeta Turnu Severin – 25.4 km – 4 hours 45 minutes – 6,866 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,531.2 km

30/08/2017. It was 1964, Romania and the former Yugoslavia were panting for energy. The task was to transform poor farming countries into exemplary planned economy industrial nations. Nature conservation, the protection of creation? Of secondary importance. In 1972 the Iron Gate 1 Power Plant was finally completed. To do so the Danube had been intensively modified. Villages, streets, and cultural heritage were submerged beneath the waters. The water level was raised by 30 metres. The backlog of the water is tangible as far as Belgrade, 200 kilometres upstream. It is one of the most massive instances of interference with the […]
27. September 2017

Day 41: From Dubova to Orsova – 16.1 km – 4 hours – 5,847 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,505.9 km

29/08/2017. In antiquity it was known as the "country of wild olives". There are colourful houses, cypress trees, fig trees, chestnut trees. There is the smell of Turkish coffee. And Turkish delight along with it. We are in the Far East. Well, it feels like it at least. More precisely: we are in Ada Kaleh, a small island just before the exit of the Iron Gate. The Ottomans once built a fortress there. For the holy Baba Miskin, a dervish. "The island brings sweet peace to the soul", according to Baba Miskin. Sultan Kaleh, the island's namesake, settled here with […]
27. September 2017

Day 40: From Berzasca to Dubova – 49.5 km – 7 hours 35 minutes – 13,547 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1,489.5 km

28/08/2017. The Romanian Danube is the longest section of the Danube's course that can claim one Danube-bordering state for itself. It stretches over 1,075 kilometres, first forms the natural border between Serbia and Romania, and later, over a great distance, the Bulgarian-Romanian border, touches Moldova and the Ukraine, before flowing into the Black Sea. The Iron Gate kicks off the Romanian Danube, then it flows into the expanse of the Walachian lowlands, and continues to run eastward. The Dobrudscha hills later push it into a northerly direction. It is an exciting course, which will also, forever, have its pitfalls for […]
27. September 2017

Day 39: Rest day in Berzasca

27/08/2017. Today Pascal spontaneously decided to take a rest day. "This morning I was a little lacking in motivation", he told me. Who could blame him, after all, he had his last rest day in Vienna, around 25 days ago and 1,000 kilometres back. In addition, yesterday evening there was the considerable noise of a Romanian wedding. His accommodation in Berzasca is idyllically situated, with a view of the Danube and the mountains. There are worse places to pass the time. Together with Nils and Matse, Pascal is using the sunny morning for a little interview session. The boys were […]
27. September 2017

Days 37/38: Paddle excursion into the Nera Valley / From Moldova Veche to Berzasca – 31.5 km – 5 hours 40 minutes – 9,748 paddle strokes – total kilometres covered: 1,440.3 km

25-26/08/2017. "One of these whirlpools is enormous. In its midst the water circles vigorously, as if waltzing. […] The closer you get to it, the clearer you hear an unsettling sound. It's as if someone were speaking, knocking, and rolling around, all at the same time, somewhere deep under the water." That's how the Serbo-Austrian writer Milo Dor describes his impressions of the Iron Gate. The Turks also described it as a "giant cooking point". It is the most dramatic section along the entire course of the Danube. Ships crashed into underground cliffs by the dozen, small boats were pulled […]
24. August 2017

Day 27: From Mohács to Batina – 27.6 km – of which, 21.6 km paddled, 6 km run – 5 hours – 5,098 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1034.5 km

15/08/2017. Today started at 09:30 with the last few kilometres in Hungary, and then straight into the first kilometres in Croatia. And then everything turned out quite against expectations… An easy first 15 kilometres up to the Hungarian border at river kilometre 1433, then the Hungarian border police stopped him and asked Pascal if he had checked out in Mohács, which Pascal of course hadn't done, as SUPs aren't actually allowed on the Hungarian Danube. The Hungarian customs official took Pascal's details and compared them with those of his boss in Mohács. Despite everything, after a few short minutes Pascal's […]
24. August 2017

Day 26: From Baja to Mohács – 33.4 km – 4 hours 40 minutes – 6,808 paddle strokes – Total kilometres covered: 1006.9 km

14/08/2017. Mohács is Pascal's goal today, a place rich in history. First of all, it was the site of peasant revolt led by György Dózsa. He was defeated. The home troops were, however, weakened as a result. The Ottoman Turks were drawing ever closer. Belgrade had long since been taken. They advanced yet further. Suleiman demanded tribute from Hungary. He was refused. He didn't take long to act. He had 60,000 men march on Hungary, including 12,000 janissaries, the feared elite troops. The generals and the Hungarian nobility completely underestimated the situation. The rushed to the attack, even though the […]