January 13, 2014
Adventures with the Boathound Gang: If you lived in England, you'd be dead by now
The Danube was now so wide that the only way that I could cross it in order to continue south was by boat. There was a ferry leaving Galati every half an hour and it was another lovely sunny day as I sailed across the river. On the other side was a small village and then the open road, and what a lovely road it was, carrying me along with the sun on my face and the wind at my back. Oh how I had earned this moment after all my toils in Moldova. Back at the hostel in Chisinau Gerry had told me that it would be flat all the way from here to Turkey and so I was expecting it to be hilly. At first it was flat but with hills around and the road at times climbed into these, although that was okay because the scenery was great and this was truly magnificent cycling at long last. I passed through many small villages and, away from the city, I could have been back in Moldova. There were lots of horse-drawn carts and shepherds watching their flocks through the fields, little shacks for homes and babushkas watching me through weary eyes.
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After a night in the tent in a field from which I could see the smoke from a shepherds fire not far away I awoke to a cold frost but another clear sky and the promise of more sunshine. Traian had told me I was extremely lucky as there is usually a foot or two of snow and minus temperatures at this time of year, not bright sunshine and double-digit temperatures. He said in thirty years of living here, he could never remember such a warm winter. I decided to try and take advantage of the good weather and go and see some of the Danube Delta Nature Reserve.
I went through the town of Tulcea and continued east. Tulcea was quite a nice place actually; as with Galati there had clearly been effort made to create some nice public spaces. I sat in a park by a lake in the town, then continued through a central square where I saw children feeding and chasing (mostly chasing) the pigeons. The atmosphere was nice, friendly. I had no idea what my Romanian friends back in England were so worried about.
The road east of Tulcea took me to a ferry where I could see from my map that I could cross this tributary and take a small road into the wetlands around the delta of the Danube itself. Traian had told me that the best way to see the delta was by taking a boat trip but as I'm not a millionaire I decided to see what I could see from this road instead. I had to wait a while for the ferry and while I was waiting on board I decided to have something to eat. As soon as I started rustling around in my food pannier four or five stray dogs came running onto the ferry and looked at me with expectant eyes. I had already seen many strays in Romania, maybe more even than in Moldova, although they seemed much better behaved here and none had chased me so far. Traian told me that they were starting to castrate these dogs now in order to control the population. I felt very pleased that Romania was doing this, as opposed to in Western countries where the answer has always been to remove stray dogs and in most instances kill them, which isn't very nice. I could imagine the conversation the dog might have during the castration:
"Woof woof, Why are you doing this, why? Its a horrible thing to do!"
"Hey dog, think yourself lucky that you're only having your balls chopped off. If you lived in England, you'd be dead by now."
"You humans are really screwed up you know that?"
There must have been six or seven dogs in total that appeared to live in the area around the boats (there were several other boats docked up, and even a couple of people transporting people across the river in rowing boats.) These dogs clearly all belonged to the same gang (the Boathound Gang?) and when another dog appeared from down the street they all leapt up, barking madly and ran towards it. But this new dog was completely unperturbed and merely stood and faced them as they came up barking, with a look on his face which said "whats all the noise, I'm not scared off you, pipe down will you?" The dogs of the Boathound Gang, clearly bemused that this new dog wasn't running away from them, had no idea what do next and after a minute or two all wandered back to where they were, which for most of them was back to sit down in front of me on the ferry. I was eating some peanuts and they looked at me with such hopeful eyes that I threw a few down to them and they ate them greedily. Enjoy your nuts while you can boys.
The ferry finally took me across the river and I headed off on a small bumpy road into the wetlands. I had been told it was a haven for wildlife and birds but other than being chased by a dog and a few startled pheasants I saw nothing for the first few kilometres. Then I heard a noise through the reeds and I stopped to look closely. Yes, it was definitely animals, I knew the 'ding, ding, ding' noise very well, but I couldn't say exactly what it was. But then I saw them, yes indeed, my oh my, it was a whole flock of sheep.
My attempt at visiting the Danube Delta was a bit of a disaster; I didn't really see anything from the road apart from a lot of reeds and I soon gave up and turned back. I had to wait a really long time for the ferry back and one of the guys with the rowing boats was going to offer to take me until he lifted up the bike to see how heavy it was and immediately decided the boat would sink if he put it in it. It wouldn't of course, it weighs less than a man and I saw him rowing three people across before, but I would have felt like the devil sitting there while he struggled and strained at the oars. So I waited for the motor ferry and took that and continued south.
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13/01/14 - 53km
14/01/14 - 71km
Today's ride: 124 km (77 miles)
Total: 12,350 km (7,669 miles)
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