The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. Mike Wells
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Название: The Danube Cycleway Volume 2
Автор: Mike Wells
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 9781783623136
isbn:
The Romanian Danube road was once tree-lined along its entire length (Stages 19–25)
At Călăraşi, where the Danube divides into two channels, the river is crossed and the going becomes hillier as the route undulates through the hills of southern Dobruja (Stages 26–27) following the eastern branch of the river. This undulating going continues as the route turns north through Dobruja, eventually reaching the foothills of the Măcin mountains (Stages 28–29). The final stages (30–32) circle these mountains, crossing the river twice to visit the two large cities of Brăila and Galaţi before ending at Tulcea, the gateway to the Danube Delta. Optional excursions allow you to visit Moldova and Ukraine (from Galaţi) and the Danube Delta (from Tulcea). There is an alternative route for Stages 27–32 through Dobruja, going from Ion Corvin to Tulcea via Constanţa and the Black Sea coast. See Appendix A for a summary of the stages.
Natural environment
Physical geography
The course of the Danube below Budapest has been greatly influenced by geomorphic events approximately 30 million years ago, when the Alps, Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges were pushed up by the collision of the African and European tectonic plates. The Carpathians rose in a large curved S-shaped formation, passing through what are nowadays Slovakia and Romania, while the Balkans continued this curve through Serbia and Bulgaria. The Danube has cut its way between these two mountain ranges by way of the Iron Gates gorges.
Small farmers in Romania still make extensive use of horse-drawn carts
Either side of this mountain barrier, the river has created two extensive basins. The Pannonian basin takes up most of central Hungary (where it is known as the Great Hungarian plain) and extends south into Slavonia (eastern Croatia) and Vojvodina (northern Serbia). East of the mountains is the Wallachian basin, taking up the southern part of Romania. In both these basins the river has over many centuries changed its meandering course as a result of frequent flooding. This has created a swampy flood plain close to the river. Bounding this flood plain and set back from the river sometimes by as much as 30km is the low rise (between 30–50m) of a river terrace leading to a fertile plateau of sandy loess (fine wind-blown soil) formed from silt brought down by the Danube. The construction of extensive flood dykes in the Pannonian basin and the Iron Gates dams, constructed in the late 20th century between the two basins, have permanently changed the pattern of regular flooding. This has enabled the flood plains to be developed agriculturally. Farming on the plateau above the river terrace is typically arable, with wheat, maize, oilseed rape and sunflowers the main crops cultivated in very large farms. On the floodplain, smaller farms grow a mixture of crops, fruit and vegetables in addition to raising livestock. Traditional farming methods are followed in many areas, including local styles of haystacks in Serbia, mobile beehives pollinating the crops and extensive use of horse and carts in Romania and reed cultivation in the Danube Delta.
Mobile beehives on the back of large trucks are used to pollinate fields of rape and sunflowers in Romania
As the boundary between tectonic plates the region is subject to occasional earthquakes. Strong tremors greater than magnitude 7 occur on average every 58 years. The most recent (mag 7.4) was in 1986, while a mag 7.1 earthquake in 1977 severely damaged the Romanian town of Zimnicea (Stage 22).
Wildlife
While a number of small mammals and reptiles (including rabbits, hares, red squirrels, voles, water rats, weasels and snakes) may be seen scuttling across the track and deer glimpsed in forests, this is not a route inhabited by rare animals. European beaver, which had been hunted to extinction throughout the lower Danube during the 19th century, have been successfully reintroduced in a number of locations including the Gemenc national park (Hungary, Stage 4), Kopački rit nature reserve (Croatia, Stage 6) and River Olt (Romania, Stage 21) from where they have spread down river as far as the Danube Delta. As they are mainly nocturnal, your chances of seeing a beaver are slight, although you may spot a lodge. Wild boar are indigenous throughout the route, being particularly numerous in Kopački rit.
There is a wide range of interesting birdlife. White swans, geese and many varieties of ducks inhabit the river and its banks. Cruising above, raptors, particularly buzzards and kites, are frequently seen hunting small mammals. Birds that live by fishing include cormorants, noticeable when perched on rocks with their wings spread out to dry, and kingfishers. These exist in many locations, mostly on backwaters, perching where they can observe the water. Despite their bright blue and orange plumage they are very difficult to spot. Grey herons, on the other hand, are very visible and can often be seen standing in shallow water waiting to strike or stalking purposefully along the banks.
Perhaps the most noticeable birds are white storks. These huge birds, with a wingspan of two metres, nest mostly on man-made platforms. They feed on small mammals and reptiles, which they catch in water meadows or on short grassland. They are common throughout the route, particularly in southern Romania where many villages have what looks like avenues of stork nests balanced precariously on almost every telegraph pole.
Most villages in southern Romania have a number of stork nests, like this one in Năvodari (Stage 22)
Among a wide variety of reptiles, dice snakes are common around Kopăcki rit while wild land tortoise can be found in Romania’s Đerdap National Park (Stages 15–16).
Preparation
When to go
The route is generally cycleable from April to October. The best times are probably late spring (May–June) and early autumn (September–October) as it can be very hot during July and August when 40ºC is not uncommon on the Hungarian plain and in southern Romania.
How long will it take?
The main route has been broken into 32 stages averaging 54km per stage, although there is a wide variation in stage lengths from 30km (Stage 30) to 96km (Stage 19). A fit cyclist, cycling an average of 90km per day, could complete the route in 19 days. However, the main determinant of how long the trip will take is not the distance you can cycle in a day; rather it is the distance between accommodation options, particularly in Romania. Unless you are camping, or are sufficiently fluent in Romanian to ask around in villages for private accommodation, you will find it difficult to achieve a steady daily distance and should allow at least three weeks for the journey. Travelling at a gentler pace of 60km per day and allowing time for sightseeing, cycling from Budapest to the Black Sea would take four weeks.
What kind of cycle is suitable?
Most of the route is on asphalt surfaced roads or cycle tracks. However, there are some long stretches of cycling along unsurfaced flood dykes in Hungary and Serbia, and some of the road surfaces in Romania leave a lot to be desired although since Romania joined the EU they are improving rapidly. As a result, cycling the route as described in this guide is not recommended for narrow tyred racing cycles. There are on-road alternative routes which can be used to by-pass the rougher СКАЧАТЬ