Twenty One Days on the Danube | A Journey of Endurance and Grace

starting page five…

The Sacred Tree and a Haunted Night

Not too far into our paddle as the sun starts to set we notice the largest tree we’ve yet seen. Most of the river the forests have been harvested and replanted, there are larger trees but nothing to compare to the grand lady we are to meet. Her long roots hug the high shore line and we see she reigns over a perfect camping ground.

Our routine of unpacking the kayak and setting camp is accomplished in no time. A fire is lit and wood is gathered, it is then that the Tree speaks to us both and I find myself embracing her wide girth. Cristian has spoken, “She wants to talk to you.” I sit at her base smoking my cigarette and sipping some fresh Romanian wine and thus she speaks in the silent way of trees. There is a recognition that she is about 250 years old and that there are very few of her age left, she lets me know that the old ones who hold memory are pleased that there are a few humans remembering what life was like before the destruction began.

Christine communes with the tree. 

“Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.”  ― Black Elk

I have found that when communicating with the natural world it is necessary not to try to make conversation, better to simply sit and allow the messages to filter through any barriers for they arrive in the most subtle language. During this night we were to experience some rather bizarre and not so subtle messages.

We are feeling the accumulation of tiredness tonight though inwardly we feel light as feathers as we slip into the sanctuary of our tent for a good night’s rest expecting the quiet and peace that surrounds us with the promise of a deep night’s sleep.

Sometime after midnight I am awakened to a horrible screeching sound, in my semi-awake state I imagine that an animal has been caught as prey and is fighting for its life, this sound fills the whole of the area in one moment close and in another I hear it across the canal. It continues like this for long drawn out minutes not abating though I can’t rise myself to full alertness to investigate. Laying like this with my eyes closed I perceive the bare feet of a man approach our tent as I simply observe as he draws closer, he is curious as to who these intruders are and while I feel no fear I don’t sense him as benevolent, more like a guardian who dislikes our presence. In the next moment there are dark shadows swirling around our tent, again no fear arises as I reach out in my dream body to the Tree knowing her protection and she reassures me that no harm can come to us. What I intuit is that this place was once used for ceremony and ritual, the memory is preserved by the Tree herself, perhaps the man was killed here… The keening across the water continues and I allow myself to let this spirit man know we will not interrupt the space as soon as I do this he retreats along with the dark shadows. Eventually I slip back to sleep not having ever aroused myself enough to question what was just experienced.

Waking in the dawning morning light I make my coffee and sit in silent contemplation, the view is pristine and peaceful as our kayak sits calmly framed in the over hanging boughs of the trees and the water is still and mirror like.

Kayak framed by the boughs of trees.

When Cristian wakes up and after his first coffee I mention what I experienced during the night, it turns out I wasn’t dreaming for he too heard the screeches and thought there were two large owls in the tree over our head, he too saw the spirit of the man and dark shadows. We are accustomed to not interpret or try to figure things out so we simply acknowledged that we didn’t land on this spot by accident, something was remembered and something was rectified, we no longer try to find the linear explanation content to let be what is and move on.

We are in for a long paddle today for we have chosen a circuitous route in still waters. There are moments when the body rebels and lets the mind know that enough is enough, even so we paddle on wanting to reach our next destination, the port town of Sulina and finally the Black Sea. The longing for the sea is growing in Cristian and I feel his impatience and then his surrender to the eternity of now.

Morning sun through the branches of the sacred tree.

Betty and sometimes Blue waits quietly for the next leg as the sun rises.

A Lake on the Delta

We’ve entered an enchanted place of wildlife where quiet water, marshlands and overhanging trees along with the slow paddle allow us to absorb what we are seeing. We are headed for an interior lake one of the many that are part of the delta network, we need to cross it and find the canal that will take us back to the main branch of the Danube that leads us to port of Sulina.

As our movements are lazy at the beginning of the day we were making slow time. When we reach another wider channel where we would again turn North a gathering of rustic hotels is discovered a place where tourists were loading and unloading unyielding suitcases from the speedboats that whisked them to this destination. We stopped for a beer and I bought myself an ice cream bar its creamy sweetness soothing any body complaints . Sitting on the hotel’s fishing dock we observed “tourism” which amounts to people being shuffled around in groups, safety first as they all wore identifying bulky bright orange life jackets and chattered away in language nonsensical to our ears.

Here is a good place to mention that Cristian and I had become photo-opts for these gaggles of people having cameras and phones pointed at us while our images were captured to be taken home as some souvenir. I now really know why native people so dislike this invasion of their privacy for we weren’t visiting as tourists, it was more of a sacred pilgrimage and our dislike of such noisy invasive interruptions had steadily grown.

Somewhat rested we return to the canal that enters the lake, it is an easy paddle and in one breathtaking moment we experience the beauty of the open delta, spacious water and birds, birds, birds! The sense of delight and fulfillment is from the beyond not even the photos can capture what felt like flying.

My iPhone was always kept hanging around my neck and on this occasion I couldn’t stop taking photos. An inner chuckle arises for I wonder now if birds feel we are invading their privacy and I am sure they do but not in the grumbling human way.

The vistas open wide.

Hundreds of seagulls take flight.

Egret on submerged log.

Egret taking flight.

Cristian at the helm.

We’ve made it so far now, figuring over 500 km and still more to go. The wind picked up over the expanse of the water we are sailing on, it is now necessary that I find the opening to the cnal on the other shore but using Google maps has several issues, number one is that at a certain distance from the shoreline it stops tracking your position, another one is that when you zoom in and out you lose certain features like names of towns and identifying landmarks. I had determined our course at an 11:00 angle across the lake and the wind was taking us along at a nice clip when I discovered several other outlets or so it seemed for this wasn’t the first or last time Google maps played with my perception. Not being completely sure I tossed the phone to Cristian to check for he had originally plotted our course, in those few minutes he looked the kayak was blown in a new direction and Google stopped tracking us. Oh bother! Given the phone back we were forced to use our eyes the best we could but now in the middle of a semi circular lake nothing was for sure. It was also growing late in the evening and we needed to find a spot to set our tent for the night.

We both had determined that we saw an opening and sure enough a small boat was coming from that area so off we went in that direction only to discover it was an shallow inlet with no way through. We paddled a short distance on the shoreline until we found a site that only grace could have provided us with. A bit muddy on the landing but under a grove of trees someone had built a multi-layered bed of dried rushes, an old fashion mattress to set our tent upon. Not only that we found five bottles of sealed water, always at a premium as you can only carry so much water on a kayak.

The campfire blazing I roasted an eggplant, a red pepper, some onion and garlic then smothered them with tomato sauce, served with black olives and warmed bread spread with butter we had a feast which we enjoyed with the last half of a bottle of wine. It is amazing to find out what can be done over an open fire for often during the trip I had thought about mass consumerism and all the appliances and gadgets so many kitchens have. My love of simplicity has grown in leaps and bounds.

There was a chance of rain the next day and we slept well deciding this was another good place to wait out a squall should one arise. Our solar powered lantern lit the tent with a soft glow as we spent some time sharing our perceptions of this blessed day, even losing our course we were found.

Our tent really had become our sanctuary for every night we felt the thin fabric encase us in a private safe space. Sometimes lit with a small candle or a lantern, on other nights we welcomed the pitch darkness and gazed silently at the stars overhead. If anyone were around to hear us it would have been our whispers and laughter for every night we felt blessed – even the most arduous ones.

Our tent sanctuary with a view of the dome.

The Enchanted Delta and The Long Stretch to Reach Sulina.

We started early the next morning as the day dawned calm and we had a lake to cross and a canal to find. It wasn’t too hard when we discovered we had actually gone in a near opposite direction so off we set happy for a good night’s sleep and getting our bearings back.

Entering the canal we floated into a fairy book world of green frogs hopping along on top of water lily pads, flowering plants graced the shore as the morning light shining through the dense foliage with birds of every size and color swooping ahead of us as we floated along almost effortlessly.

Calm waters greet our day.

The sun peeks through the dense foliage creating a magical effect.

An enchanted dwelling at the opening of the canal.

Water lilies grew along both banks.

Water lilies and trying to catch a photo of a frog.

Purple flowers grace the higher shore.

Managed to catch a shot of this fellow before he took flight.

There were only a few so to find a white lotus blossom was special.

Much like the rose we are to find later, this blossom broke off while our kayak skidded by. Cristian reached over and handed it to me.

Christine prepares breakfast on board.

I had become an avid photographer but what overrode that was my love of floating peacefully without any activity. This gentle day I was able to sit on the bow and make our breakfast of the best yogurt in the world (cow, goat and sheep milk combined) mixed with a few scoops of organic vegan protein powder sweetened with sour cherry jam.

Every day was special but this one glowed deep in the heart of wonder. From the fresh morning start we are refreshed and determined to make Sulina for the night but had many kilometers ahead of us. Here our journey continues and so does our flow, its become so fascinating to allow the ways of the universe to take you where she wants and the dynamics were about to change.

The Port of Sulina

We reached Sulina late afternoon, tired and dreaming of a romantic dinner of fish, a glass of wine and Cristian wanted to buy me a rose. We had found a camp site just before town but decided to go the last 2 kilometers and find that dinner. Well… things didn’t go that way as we found ourselves with strong headwinds, lots of ships going in both directions and on reaching Sulina a high cement dock that ran several kilometers of shoreline not suitable to dock our kayak even though we made one attempt which we had to abandon.

We continued past town and I swear Google maps once again played with me as I clearly saw a short channel to a small lake, but oh no! what I saw as a lake was the Black Sea with gusting wind tossing up high waves directly in our faces. So we back paddled the short distance to the main river tired and discouraged. Cristian ready to throw the tent up anywhere suggested a spot that was barely wide enough for our tent surrounded by tall wind whipped rushes growing around the narrow space my whine was “I feel like crying and no I won’t sleep here tonight.” I guess the threat of my tears was enough for us to brave whatever we had to endure to find somewhere more suitable and comfortable.

We had hit a vortex of water entering the canal but on the way out it wouldn’t let us exit, we were spun around in circles  finally landing on the side of a gentleman’s boat which he was fishing from, this proved to be our fortune as he offered to tow us out to a sheltered harbor.

Towed to safe harbor.

We gratefully accepted and were towed to a protected harbor with several Bed and Breakfast type hotels where we rented a room with a real bed, had a hot shower and were served scrumptious fish soup, hearty bread and lots of butter.

When I woke up in the morning I felt totally out of my body and dizzy. I’ve experienced this before as it feels like you are energetically drained to the core. I had no choice but to lay down and when I did it occurred to me to accept these colliding energies without any battle and as I did I felt myself pulled into a place I had never visited before, it felt like I was going down, down, down into the Earth herself. The dizziness was due to the whole world being inverted, what was up, the sky, the stars was down and vice-versa, the waters, the ocean floated above me…

It felt like going through the water’s reflection to the other side where I was greeted by a vision so ethereal that it remains elusive. The colors were different, more vibrant and it was like being in an endless high cavern with its own source of light. As I floated in this space many forms came in and out of view, trees, birds, animals and even people all infused with a peaceful aura of beautiful light. My mind wanted to tell me a story though that wasn’t allowed, I could say it felt like I went through heaven’s gate or had I entered Inner Earth. These thoughts are relatively meaningless as they are only labels put on experiences to define and limit them. All I knew was that my energy rearranged itself, I may have fallen to sleep for when I got up I was renewed and grateful for being allowed a look on the inside.

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