Day 31: Hitchhiker’s guide to the Danube

Donji Milanovac to Kladovo (56km)

I awoke a little sore this morning but nothing stopping me from continuing. At breakfast, I took a couple of sausages, the Frankfurter ones. I was a little concerned that my fork and then my knife were unable to penetrate them. Had I lost so much strength yesterday that I am no longer able to pierce through a sausage? I soon discovered, to my relief, that the sausages were actually coated in plastic which one was meant to remove and eat the inside. I did not.

I packed up and headed back down to the kayak. It was another miserable day, grey clouds all around and some decent winds were causing waves on the river. When I arrived at the kayak, I discovered that my deepest fears had been realised, the sticker had come completely off. Amazingly, apart from that, everything seemed to be in perfect condition. The inside of the kayak had even had a long overdue clean out, cereal bar wrappers from Germany and Austria that had found their way into every nook and cranny, were now released to the surface. I packed up and was on my way.

For a while now, the two Serbian locks, Djerdap 1 and Djerdap 2, have been looming large on the proverbial horizon. Today, if everything went to plan, I would take on the first lock. Before then, I still had about 45km to go, including passage through the famous Iron Gate region. The Iron Gate is one of the landmarks of the Danube and for many visitors, the absolute highlight of the whole river. I was looking forward to it, but the bad weather, yesterday’s shenanigans and concern over the upcoming lock, left me with a sense of apathy over the whole experience.

The first few kilometres were a struggle. The wind wasn’t particularly strong, but strong enough to make paddling unpleasant. I had gone about 15km when a passing boat waved to me. It is not uncommon for people to wave, in fact, it’s more uncommon for them not to wave, but this wave was slightly different from usual. I got the impression that they were telling me to move over to the side of the river. I had been travelling closer to the middle in an attempt to utilize the faster currents. I wasn’t in the mood to move over, so I ignored them. The boat then turned around, drove back upstream for a few hundred yards, turned around again and came up right behind me. Again, absolutely not in the mood to be told to move over, I was ready for an argument. Instead, the driver of the boat asked if I wanted a lift. I had thought about this a few times before, would it be possible to hitch a lift from a larger boat for a few kilometres. “Absolutely” I replied. A rope was then attached to the front of my kayak and I was dragged for 20km to the town of Tekija. It was brilliant, just what I needed. We went through the Iron Gate, passed a massive face carved into the rock, arriving in Tekija around lunch time. The boat wasn’t super-fast, in fact it only went about twice the speed of kayaking, but the break was perfectly timed and saved me a good hour and a bit, time that would come in very useful later on. To maintain my persona of a complainer, I did get a wee bit cold whilst being dragged, so it wasn’t all good.

From Tekija, I had 14km to go to reach the lock. The kilometres were quite slow, the lock had removed any current and despite being able to see it from a long way off, it took an age to reach it. Both the Serbian and Romanian sides have locks and it is really a case of take your pick as to which side you choose to go to. I had heard that due their size, there is no way that they will operate a lock just for a kayak and that you must wait for a boat to arrive and enter with it. I decided to choose the Serbian side, better the devil you know I reckon. Upon arrival, I got chatting to the lock operator, who confirmed that they won’t operate it for a kayak and that I’d have to wait for a ship. He also suggested that I should go over to the Romanian side as it was more likely that a ship would go to that side. I did so, making the 1.5km journey over to the other side. I got out and had a look around, no one. Eventually, I was met by a policeman. The lock also operates as a bridge, connecting Romania and Serbia and therefore, a border. He spoke no English, but I could tell he was a bit suspicious of my presence. He told me to return to the kayak. When I returned, two more men were standing there, one of whom was a policeman. The other, a large man, told me to go back to the Serbian side and go through there. Actually he didn’t say Serbian, he said Yugoslav, I decided not to tell him about the breakup of Yugoslavia, he’ll learn when he’s ready. I explained that I’d already been to that side and they told me to come here. He said that the lock on this side was broken and that I should return, they were expecting me. So, I made the 1.5km journey back across the river to the Yugoslav Serbian side. Approaching, I could see that the lock door was now open and the green light was on, so I hurried into the lock. After about ten minutes, the doors closed behind me and the lock began to drain. I was the only thing in this massive container, perhaps they had taken pity on me and broken protocol by operating the lock just for a kayak, I felt honoured. The lock took an absolute age to drain, at least 30 minutes. When it finally did, the doors began to open, revealing a second chamber, with a large tourist ship in it. They were operating the lock for the ship, my presence was a happy coincidence, what an ego bruiser. I then switched places with the ship, the doors again closing behind me and for the second time, the lock began to drain. I was dreading a third chamber, thankfully, when the doors creaked open, there was nothing but clear water ahead, I was finally on my way.

All of this took a long time and I was now in a rush against the clock to arrive before darkness. I only had about 9km to go and about 1.5 hours to do it, so I was confident it would be fine. It turned out to be ample time, the current increased dramatically after the lock and I sped the last 9km to Kladovo, arriving comfortably before darkness. Although, had it not been for my hitchhiking earlier, darkness would’ve been an almost certainty.

Dinner was fantastic, a buffet of all sorts, including Schnitzel. Another long, eventful day but glad to make it through the first lock. One more to go and then it is clear water to the Black Sea.

A massive happy birthday to my Mum for today. No single person has contributed more to this trip and I can’t thank her enough. I hope you had a great day, a much more enjoyable one than I was having a few thousand miles away.