[HN Gopher] Canoeing on the Danube
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Canoeing on the Danube
Author : karagenit
Score : 68 points
Date : 2025-03-29 15:05 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (jameswarnersmith.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (jameswarnersmith.co.uk)
| rdtsc wrote:
| Danube delta the second largest river delta in Europe after
| Volga's delta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube_Delta
|
| Another interesting thing about it is there are villages of
| Russian Old Believers (Lipovans) there. A famous Romanian canoe
| racing Olympic medalist and coach, Ivan Patzaichin
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Patzaichin is from there. He
| passed away just a few years ago.
| aredox wrote:
| More sailing/rowing adventures on the Danube:
| https://www.sailsmagazine.com.au/reflections-fantastic-voyag...
|
| Some more nice reading and pictures on that culturally extremely
| significant river: https://markbakerprague.com/a-thinking-mans-
| journey-down-the...
| KeplerBoy wrote:
| duh, I had no idea you could sail on the danube. Literally just
| crossed the danube 5 minutes ago as I do every day and never
| saw a sailboat on it.
| aredox wrote:
| Oh, it is perfectly possible, if uncommon. It is true that it
| is mostly foreign adventurers rather than a local scene.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@totheblacksea405
|
| The Brits sail far more complicated waterways:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TgaFfSsLWI
|
| Sailing is not that common of a hobby/sport in Eastern Europe
| in general. Lake Balaton is a hotspot (including in winter
| with iceboats - alas, a sport going down due to global
| warming), Poland has quite a few sailors (both inland and in
| open waters) and boat designers, but that's mostly it.
| danielbarla wrote:
| My guess is that it's either extremely hard or impossible
| to sail _up_ the river, and locals don't want the hassle of
| having to arrange for transport on the way back.
|
| It's a slightly different thing with canoes, and there's
| definitely a local industry built up around it; the rental
| place drives you upriver some distance, and expects you to
| make your way downriver to their pier / office. This makes
| sense because they can take a fair few canoes and tourists
| in one trip, and most people can figure out how to paddle a
| canoe downstream.
| nicbou wrote:
| I miss this sort of page. It's thorough and informative and
| completely unlike what I tend to find when I google anything
| nowadays.
|
| Above all, it's super niche and will likely make someone's day
| when it solves their specific problem.
| youngtaff wrote:
| It is but it's a shame it doesn't have easily readable type -
| size if too small and contract is too low
| nicbou wrote:
| Reader mode handles it well because it's a simple HTML page
| gaussiandistro wrote:
| Some other great adventures canoeing on the Danube:
| https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11438/pg11438-images.ht...
| Gys wrote:
| I assume the canoeing is generally done downstream? Because they
| do up to 80 km per day. Unfortunately the article does not state
| in which direction the river is flowing? And what the speed is?
| jajko wrote:
| If you ever canoed you will know 80km upstream for 2 months
| with loaded canoe is impossible for regular humans.
|
| As for direction of flow, just look at the map, not sure why
| people post questions online that can be answered in 5s
| googling, its freely available info.
| d1sxeyes wrote:
| It's a little bit below 10km/h in the upper part. The itinerary
| suggests that they're going 'with' the flow. I think making any
| progress against the current would be basically impossible.
| axelfontaine wrote:
| While I haven't canoed it, I cycled the whole Danube from the
| sources of the Brigach and Breg in the Black Forest in Germany to
| the delta in Romania. AMA.
| keiferski wrote:
| What percentage of the route was directly next to, or very
| close to, the river? Did you have to veer inland to get past
| any parts?
| axelfontaine wrote:
| A very large part. Certainly up to the Romanian border, then
| it's all over the place. The Danube cycle path has been
| integrated in EuroVelo 6. You can see the detailed path here
| for yourself (just click through the different sections):
| https://en.eurovelo.com/ev6/from-ulm-to-passau
| greysteil wrote:
| I did most of this too! It was great.
|
| Do you have recommendations for folks who can only do a shorter
| trip (say, a long weekend, or a week)?
| axelfontaine wrote:
| The classic recommendation would be Passau - Vienna as the
| infrastructure is very well built out and Vienna is a great
| destination. This can easily be combined with a start in
| Munich and taking the bike back on the train to Munich for a
| round- trip that takes around 5-7 days (+-500 km).
|
| That being said a few other sections come to mind:
|
| - the very start from Donaueschingen to Regensburg is on
| beautifully wild cycling paths in the middle of nature with a
| number of interesting cities along the way
|
| - Vienna - Budapest + train back is another fun loop
| including 3 capitals!
|
| - For the more adventurous, the Serbian part is very scenic
| too. Belgrade is great. Leaving it on the busy road not so
| much. After that you quickly find yourself on a meandering
| road along the shore with spectacular cliffs and tunnels. No
| cycling path anymore. But well worth it.
|
| - Romania is still challenging for cyclists, but the delta is
| very spectacular if you get a chance to visit it (by boat, no
| bike , as there are no roads).
| drpixie wrote:
| On a similar theme, read
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unlikely_Voyage_of_Jack_de...
| ge96 wrote:
| Song name (Blue)? or unrelated
| MomsAVoxell wrote:
| I live in Vienna and frequently kayak (not canoe) the Donau. It's
| a very fun and adventurous river, and there are lots of little
| side channels and island (Au) regions that can be explored. In
| Spring/Summer, it can be a delightful escape from the city, with
| many lovely little spots to escape to and forget that
| civilization even exists.
|
| I've considered taking it on a longer paddle, for a few days
| (must of mine are day trips), so this is really a great resource.
| nickfromseattle wrote:
| American, lived 100m from the Danube for 4 years while in
| Belgrade, Serbia. One of my life goals is to boat across Europe.
| Hopefully in something bigger than a canoe, but we'll see.
| avh02 wrote:
| If you're looking something shorter and easy for anyone, you can
| raft the Vltava in the south of Czech for a weekend, it's
| basically a lazy river with countless campsites on the way. Seen
| people do it with their dogs, drunk, playing guitar, etc. Don't
| really need to paddle much, just enjoy the ride.
| fransje26 wrote:
| > drunk
|
| If I understood the Czech way of canoeing, stopping at pretty
| much every campsite with a beer tap along the way is part of
| the tradition.. And shouting "Ahoy!" to your fellow canoers.
|
| So, waiting for the summer, let's enjoy a nice lager. Ahoy!
| mobilio wrote:
| I live in Bulgaria to Danube river.
|
| Every year there was TID: https://www.tour-international-
| danubien.org/index_E.php
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(page generated 2025-04-01 23:01 UTC)