The Danube Delta is an area that I’ve seen only briefly. Still, it’s the most biodiverse ecosystem in Romania and one of the top foreign tourist attractions, so I put it on this summer’s “to do” list. While most people see the delta via motor boat, I think the most fulfilling experience is going on a multi day kayak adventure trip.

We booked the tour with Descopera Delta Dunarii. We had expedition kayaks, tough and sturdy, with lots of storage for our camping gear. We were joined by our guide, Vlad.

Left Bucharest Friday morning and arrived at the docks in Tulcea around noon. There we met Andrei Rosu, who was filming for a Voltaj video. Loaded our stuff into the kayaks and we hit the water.

The weather was pretty hot and humidity was high. We somehow managed to survive thanks to a pretty cloudy sky. The trip would have been a lot tougher on a clear day, given the heatwave that struck Romania (and most of Europe) during July.

We made frequent stops for eating, stretching our legs or visiting the areas around the canals. The water level was very low due to the drought, so many lakes were now gone. We were also mostly limited to the large canals, as many of the smaller ones were dried as well.

As the sun was setting, we set up camp. It’s important to do this before sunset, as mosquitoes are not active yet. I had two types of mosquito repellent. I tried the first one, an eco-friendly one based on eucalyptus extract, and it was crappy. The second one, based on DEET, was pretty effective.

It was surprising to me that, being surrounded by water, you are unable to wash. We could have used the water in the Danube, although it was thick and muddy, but returning to shore means going through knee-deep mud. There were no other sources of water nearby, even though we were camped next to a fisherman’s house. I asked him, more as a joke, if he drinks water from the Danube – I was assuming the answer would be an obvious no, since the water is muddy, blackish, with lots of organic stuff floating around and decomposing. “Yes. It’s quite sandy. You do get sick if you haven’t drunk it in a while, but then you’ll be fine.”

He also prepared some supper. He gave us some salty pike (although it was more like a block of salt with pike flavor) and some boiled potatoes. I’m not a big fan of fish, so I stuck to my camping food (what you see above is my Chinese instant noodle soup).

We continued with even more kayaking on our second day. We tried seeing how close we can get to a pelican (the answer is: not very close). Vlad taught us about the bird species we saw – all I remember is that there are way too many species of herons. We got some water into our kayaks from boats speeding nearby (which is illegal). We saw a couple muskrats – pretty much the largest wild mammals we encountered.

Eventually we made it to our destination, the village of Mila 23. We would have enjoyed some cooked food, but we couldn’t find any restaurants nearby. So we bought some crap from a store and camped across from the village.

Sunday morning, we left the kayaks in Mila 23 and returned to Tulcea via boat.