After 136 days of canoeing the continent, now more than ever we do not know what to expect when we get up in the morning.
Eating cereal by the light of a head torch, we have come to expect nothing but another day of new experiences along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
This week in total we made a distance of 200km down the coast. We now sit closer to Istanbul than we do to Constanta, and every kilometer has been an achievement.
We’ve risked our skins canoeing around rocky points and purred across glassy bays. We’ve cut across busy sea ports and surfed on massive waves. We’ve bantered fishermen using our three words of Bulgarian and been interrogated by military police. It’s been a massive week in terms of the distances we’ve made at sea and the places that we’ve experienced as a result.
While we have made miles on open water, the risks of being at sea have also made necessary a lot of hard walking. The Bulgarian coastline is full of rocky capes which throw up waves which cannot be attempted in a mere river canoe.
Unfortunately, our subsequent treks have not been easy. Walking around Cape Emona, Bulgaria’s stormiest; we climbed up a 385 meter high mountain and then back down it on a rutted track, all towing our cumbersome canoe. From there we clambered for miles along a rocky shore from which it was impossible to launch our canoe.
Just yesterday, rough water saw us land on a tiny craggy beach, lever the canoe up a cliff and then accidentally ran across the firing range of a naval base. While this may all sound pretty exciting, the subsequent hours that we spent under armed guard in the naval base enforced upon us the dangers of being at sea.
These dangers are something that we have largely taken great care to avoid. While we cannot predict what the day will hold, we can look at detailed forecasts of wave height, wind speed and wind direction for days in advance. Not only this, but we can plan for contingencies. We know the most efficient point to opt for an arduous drag along Bulgarian roads and the most likely place for a good camping spot.
All in all, it has been a great week on the Black Sea that leaves us only 100km from the Turkish border. Unfortunately, the next two days show a severe weather forecast that will see us spend at least two days walking. From there, who knows, but I’m sure it won’t be boring.
For more detailed updates you can follow our progress @CanoeingEurope on Twitter and read our regular blogs at www.canoeingthecontinent.com.
