Day 1: Which way to the Black Sea?

Donaueschingen to Tutlingen (?km)

Donaueschingen is widely considered to be the source of the mighty River Danube, 2,800km of water flowing through 10 countries before draining into the Black Sea. It is Europe’s second longest river, beaten only by the Volga in Russia and has proved to be a lifeline through the heart of Europe for centuries.

Firstly, a huge thanks to my parents for their invaluable help, driving all the way from Scotland with the kayak and despite a few near misses, they had arrived with the cargo safely. We headed down to the river, carried the kayak to the banks and began packing it up. Even though I had planned all the equipment that I would be taking, I hadn’t actually ever put it all into the kayak. It became immediately clear, that there was no way that everything was going to fit. The immediate reaction was to call the whole trip off and head home, however, after a few moments of consideration, we decided that if we removed the items from the bags and simply stuffed it all into the compartments of the kayak, then it would probably fit. Last night I had spent a bit of time carefully packing all my stuff into the waterproof bags, organising by priority of need. This careful preparation was quickly undone by a few minutes of stuffing items into the kayak wherever they would fit. This meant removing everything from the waterproof bags, however, this shouldn’t be an issue as theoretically the compartments should be sealed and no water should get in.

Kayak packed, we pushed it onto the river, the body of water that I will call home for the next several weeks. It was a beautiful morning and at 11am on August 1^st 2016, I began my expedition towards the Black Sea.

After 20 minutes of kayaking, I had already surpassed my previous lifetimes best. At this stage the Danube is no more than a meandering stream, often no more than 10 metres across and knee deep in depth, it’s incredible to think that this wee stream could make it all the way to the Black Sea. It was very slow going, at this stage, there is very little current and I was being slowed even more by the mountains of grass that were growing on the river bed and coming through the surface. It was difficult to tell exactly how far or how fast I was going, there are no distance markers and the maps I was using were for the cycle route which sometimes stray away from the river, however, I was well aware that I wasn’t moving fast.

A couple of hours in, I decided to pull over to the bank for a quick snack and for a toilet stop. In hindsight, I picked a horrendous place to stop, but I was bursting. I aimed my kayak at the bank and went straight into it. The front part (not sure if there is a specific kayaking term for each section of the boat) was perched on the bank, allowing me to exit the kayak. I had stopped on a muddy bank, so getting out was a bit mucky, but I managed. I got back in and tried to push away from the bank with my paddle. The paddle slipped on the muddy surface and I tipped aggressively to one side. The kayak was now on its edge (imagine a car on two wheels) and I was balanced in purgatory for what felt like an age. Eventually, I succumbed to the dark side and I was in the water, kayak completely capsized. For anyone taking bets on when I would first fall in, day 1 gets the prize (probably quite a popular choice). Fortunately, it was a nice warm day, so I was glad to cool off. I then managed to haul the kayak back onto the bank, get back in and set off without issue.

The water level was so low that any occasion where there were rocks and a downhill, rapids were created. They weren’t anything fierce, but on a couple of occasions proved to be impassable without getting out and dragging the kayak down them. On one occasion, my parents had stopped up ahead and had warned me about the upcoming obstacle. I managed to get to the bottom without any issues, stopping for a quick chat about how the morning had gone. I then handed over some stuff that I didn’t need with me in the kayak, including my passport. Taking the passport out of the “waterproof” case, it was clearly quite soggy. Sure enough, the task of destroying my passport photo that I’d started 4 years ago was now complete, passport ruined.

We agreed on the next place to meet and I carried on. Even though I wasn’t moving very quickly, I was enjoying the kayaking. It’s a much more relaxed method of travelling than cycling, the splash of the water can become quite rhythmic and the surroundings were beautiful. For the first time, I could feel the current pushing me along, the water was now incredibly shallow, occasionally I would hit the bottom with my stroke. The level continued to drop until finally, the river ran dry. Was this the Black Sea already? Maybe I was going faster than I thought? Initially I laughed at the thought that a river that was meant to power through Europe for 2,800km could peter out without 30km. Then I realised how long the dry spell went on for, I was no longer laughing. After dragging the kayak for about 1km, taking over an hour to do so. I returned to my schoolboy days and phoned my parents to come pick me up. While I was waiting for them, I wondered along the ‘river’ to see when the drought would end, I probably walked for a few kilometres and there was no water in sight. I made the decision to put the kayak on the car and continue to the next town.

Getting the loaded kayak onto the car wasn’t easy and despite a brief spell of driving on the wrong side of the road, we made it to Tutlingen. I’ve absolutely no idea how far I kayaked today, the only thing for sure is that it was a lifetime best. Pretty eventful first day on the Danube, I’m sure there will be plenty more tales in the days and weeks to come.