Canoeing on the Danube
jameswarnersmith.co.ukDanube delta the second largest river delta in Europe after Volga's delta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube_Delta
Another interesting thing about it is there are villages of Russian Old Believers (Lipovans) there. A famous Romanian canoe racing Olympic medalist and coach, Ivan Patzaichin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Patzaichin is from there. He passed away just a few years ago.
While I haven't canoed it, I cycled the whole Danube from the sources of the Brigach and Breg in the Black Forest in Germany to the delta in Romania. AMA.
What percentage of the route was directly next to, or very close to, the river? Did you have to veer inland to get past any parts?
A very large part. Certainly up to the Romanian border, then it's all over the place. The Danube cycle path has been integrated in EuroVelo 6. You can see the detailed path here for yourself (just click through the different sections): https://en.eurovelo.com/ev6/from-ulm-to-passau
I did most of this too! It was great.
Do you have recommendations for folks who can only do a shorter trip (say, a long weekend, or a week)?
The classic recommendation would be Passau - Vienna as the infrastructure is very well built out and Vienna is a great destination. This can easily be combined with a start in Munich and taking the bike back on the train to Munich for a round- trip that takes around 5-7 days (+-500 km).
That being said a few other sections come to mind:
- the very start from Donaueschingen to Regensburg is on beautifully wild cycling paths in the middle of nature with a number of interesting cities along the way
- Vienna - Budapest + train back is another fun loop including 3 capitals!
- For the more adventurous, the Serbian part is very scenic too. Belgrade is great. Leaving it on the busy road not so much. After that you quickly find yourself on a meandering road along the shore with spectacular cliffs and tunnels. No cycling path anymore. But well worth it.
- Romania is still challenging for cyclists, but the delta is very spectacular if you get a chance to visit it (by boat, no bike , as there are no roads).
More sailing/rowing adventures on the Danube: https://www.sailsmagazine.com.au/reflections-fantastic-voyag...
Some more nice reading and pictures on that culturally extremely significant river: https://markbakerprague.com/a-thinking-mans-journey-down-the...
duh, I had no idea you could sail on the danube. Literally just crossed the danube 5 minutes ago as I do every day and never saw a sailboat on it.
Oh, it is perfectly possible, if uncommon. It is true that it is mostly foreign adventurers rather than a local scene.
https://www.youtube.com/@totheblacksea405
The Brits sail far more complicated waterways:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TgaFfSsLWI
Sailing is not that common of a hobby/sport in Eastern Europe in general. Lake Balaton is a hotspot (including in winter with iceboats - alas, a sport going down due to global warming), Poland has quite a few sailors (both inland and in open waters) and boat designers, but that's mostly it.
My guess is that it's either extremely hard or impossible to sail _up_ the river, and locals don't want the hassle of having to arrange for transport on the way back.
It's a slightly different thing with canoes, and there's definitely a local industry built up around it; the rental place drives you upriver some distance, and expects you to make your way downriver to their pier / office. This makes sense because they can take a fair few canoes and tourists in one trip, and most people can figure out how to paddle a canoe downstream.
I miss this sort of page. It's thorough and informative and completely unlike what I tend to find when I google anything nowadays.
Above all, it's super niche and will likely make someone's day when it solves their specific problem.
It is but it’s a shame it doesn’t have easily readable type - size if too small and contract is too low
Reader mode handles it well because it's a simple HTML page
Some other great adventures canoeing on the Danube: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11438/pg11438-images.ht...
I live in Vienna and frequently kayak (not canoe) the Donau. It’s a very fun and adventurous river, and there are lots of little side channels and island (Au) regions that can be explored. In Spring/Summer, it can be a delightful escape from the city, with many lovely little spots to escape to and forget that civilization even exists.
I’ve considered taking it on a longer paddle, for a few days (must of mine are day trips), so this is really a great resource.
On a similar theme, read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unlikely_Voyage_of_Jack_de...
If you're looking something shorter and easy for anyone, you can raft the Vltava in the south of Czech for a weekend, it's basically a lazy river with countless campsites on the way. Seen people do it with their dogs, drunk, playing guitar, etc. Don't really need to paddle much, just enjoy the ride.
> drunk
If I understood the Czech way of canoeing, stopping at pretty much every campsite with a beer tap along the way is part of the tradition.. And shouting "Ahoy!" to your fellow canoers.
So, waiting for the summer, let's enjoy a nice lager. Ahoy!
Ahoy!
pretty much what you said and little anchored boats in the middle of the river serving up cocktails if it's too far to the next campsite.
I live in Bulgaria to Danube river.
Every year there was TID: https://www.tour-international-danubien.org/index_E.php
I assume the canoeing is generally done downstream? Because they do up to 80 km per day. Unfortunately the article does not state in which direction the river is flowing? And what the speed is?
It's a little bit below 10km/h in the upper part. The itinerary suggests that they're going 'with' the flow. I think making any progress against the current would be basically impossible.
If you ever canoed you will know 80km upstream for 2 months with loaded canoe is impossible for regular humans.
As for direction of flow, just look at the map, not sure why people post questions online that can be answered in 5s googling, its freely available info.
American, lived 100m from the Danube for 4 years while in Belgrade, Serbia. One of my life goals is to boat across Europe. Hopefully in something bigger than a canoe, but we'll see.
80kms for the longest day, amazing. The most I achieved in the north of Berlin was about 30kms/day. Also, is "Shengan" a british spelling quirk?
Song name (Blue)? or unrelated