4th august 2007 - murighiol

we cast off at 5am. I sit on the stage roof and say goodbye to the sea. We are going in the direction of home. Mist lies across the water, being slowly licked up by the sun. life on the river: little boats stacked up with crates, travelling from here to there. A little ferry with two cars that are in turn loaded up with building and construction material. A small excursion boat with tourists who shriek as they are hit and rocked by the waves ... sporting fishers again and again, all of them men, mostly in their underwear, then one in camouflage trousers, but also wearing a pink jumper and a baseball cap the same colour. It’s a peculiar sight, the way they all stand or crouch, all men, as though time stands still as our ship is travelling through the hunter-gatherer civilisation. Halfway to tulcea we make an unplanned stop, since the pontoon at which we will be docking in tulcea will not be free until tomorrow morning. We take the opportunity of going on a trip into the inner part of the delta, organised by the WWF. Finally there was a wonderful fish soup and baked pike perch; and lots of dives into the danube. The last two days were perfect. I even caught my first fish of the journey yesterday, a pike about 50cm long. He bit exactly as the sun set. I couldn’t do anything but give him life and put him back again.