Danube Delta

I visited this WHS using Tulcea as my base for a couple of days. I took a private tour with one of the several companies, with a certified birder/guide on board, for a full day exploring just a few highlights of this vast WHS. When dealing with the company, make sure to opt for the earliest departure time possible, as most bird activity happens around sunrise and again around sunset. I paid a bit extra to make sure to cover both periods of the day, without any lunch stops and it was worth it.

Make sure to turn off your data roaming already from Tulcea as Ukraine is really close by and you'll risk paying high data bills for nothing. I also printed out a zoomed in version of the excellent map provided by UNESCO to be able to follow our trip and know which strict zones we were covering and which we were only passing by. Sometimes, some of the smaller canals/passages were blocked by fallen down trees and vegetation, so we had to find alternative routes. Having a smaller yet quicker boat was an excellent choice for covering more ground and fine birdwatching (my guide would turn off the engines when approaching big flocks of birds or areas known as great habitats for smaller birds.

Some highlights were dozens of kingfishers in the narrow canals with shallow muddy banks, huge flocks of glossy ibis, spoonbills and pelicans (mostly Great White Pelicans but also Dalmatian Pelicans) near …

Where's the pristine nature? Remoteness? Θάλασσα?

In May 2011 I had the exam session in front of me, so I told mom I would switch off the phone to study and I went to the Delta. Chilia carries 60% of the water and is lazy. On the NAVROM boat from Tulcea to Periprava I got into Shrek mood (''are we there yet?''). Ukraine is across the water, phone on plane mode. The plan was ''wait and see''. We found the Lipovan priest of the village, asked where we could sleep (we were 3) and he said we could do it at his place. Periprava has 200 inhabitants and if you look on google maps, the roads are ways in the sand. Now they have one place to sleep on booking.com. Back then there was a dog who barked at us for 2 days because we weren't locals. The shower was, like in the fancy Bali photos, outdoors, with the luxury replaced by ''come now, there's warm water in the plastic barrel''. That's remote, however it's outside of the perimeter. The houses have thatched roofs and are painted in white and blue.

After we chased the sunset (a highlight of the trip), we returned to the house where the wife was waiting for us with fish (another highlight, more on that later). The next day early morning we were woken up by the rower to show us the channels and Letea sandbank, which has the northernmost subtropical forest in …

As a small extension of the 2018 community meetup I joined Philpp on a trip to the Danube Delta. For some reason I had long wanted to visit the place where the Danube, this great European river, meets the sea.

We had been on the Danube for two days now. As part of the meetup we slept in Russe (Bulgara) and visited the Roman fortifications (T). From Russe we drove to Srebarna and then to Silistra (T) where our meetup ended. Silistra also marks the end point of the Roman Limes.

As mentioned in nearly everyone's review of Srebarna it was kind of a let down. We wanted to see birds and there were none to be spotted. So I was a bit anxious to see if we would spot any birds in the Delta, especially considering how busy with locals, tourists and fishermen the place is; the Delta is not a fully protected area, only parts are.

My worries were quickly dissolved as within the hour we had seen a kingfisher and an eagle up close. There were also plenty of pelicans and what not. Under normal circumstances I am not really keen on birds, but this was quite nice as it also combined with some beautiful scenery. Admittedly, the vegetation is what most Europeans will recognize from their own lakes and rivers at home. But this is a great representative for this type of ecosystem. Add to this the size of the site and …

I took an 8-hour, speed boat tour by Safca Delta Tours from Tulcea on May 23. This company seems to be one of the more popular and reputable ones for the tour of the Delta. The skipper made things fun for all 4 of the participants all day. It cost something like 80 Euros including lunch.

We left Tulcea at 9:30, had lunch at the village of Mila 23, went on to the village of Letea for what they called a safari and came back on the Tulcea-Salina branch of the Danube straight to Tulcea at 17:30.

Hmmm, May is supposed to be one of the better months for the bird-watching there, but I'm not sure if I saw so many birds. Or maybe my expectation was too high: my image was to be surrounded by birds just as I was surrounded by tropical fish at the Great Barrier Reef when I went scuba-diving there. Birds were almost always seen way too far. Tropical fish was within my arm's reach. 

The just-caught, fresh-water fish lunch (fish soup and deep fried fish) was nice.

I'm not sure if the safari was worth it, either. We saw some wild horses sort of bathing in water and a small dune close to the Ukrainian border. It did offer a feeling that it was a far corner of Europe.

But the expanse of nature always makes me ponder on our tiny existence, and this site is one of my …

After my immersion amongst the churches of northern Romania it was a pleasure to get back to nature. The varied bird life of the Danube Delta provided the necessary respite.

I reached Tulcea by bus from the railhead of Braila and straight away embarked on the afternoon ferry down the Sulina Channel. Disembarking at Crisan I found that my guesthouse there had arranged a small boat to take me into the narrow channels of the Delta. Passing through several lakes of the Caraorman district I saw abundant bird life coming home to roost in the late afternoon sunlight.

I explored part of the Delta by boat. It was a standard tour of about 6 hours provided by Hotel Delta in Tulcea. I was in a group of 18, however, the ship can hold many more. We navigated mainly to the north, in the area of Lake Lung and Lake Nebunu. On our way, we encountered several other tour boats, as well as speed boats and even canoes. Dozens of fishermen dotted the shores.

Navigating these canals and streams by boat is a relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. I sat at the front and did my best to spot as many birds as possible. What we saw: White Pelican, Cormorant, Egret, Glossy Ibis, Heron, Kingfisher and many waterfowl. I saw a lot more than I have photos - it's very difficult to come up close because of the noise of the boat.

What also catches the eye are the many plastic bottles that have been left in the water and on the shores. This part of the Delta is relatively well accessible from the bigger cities like Tulcea, and probably a lot of locals go fishing and camping here. I expect the part closer to the Black Sea to be more pristine.

As no-one has yet reviewed the Danube Delta so I will provide a “partial” report! It is the largest river delta in Europe (assuming the Volga is not!) and has suffered relatively little from human interference compared with others such as the Rhone. To get to its heart and experience its full size and remoteness you should probably take a ferry/hydrofoil into the interior where the villages are not accessible by road. There are however some roads extending part way into the Delta which reach villages where you can hire a small boat and these seemed to me to give a reasonable feeling for the countryside and way of life of the people as well as giving access to some of the birdlife for which the Delta is famous and which we had primarily come to see.

We concentrated on the southern area around the villages of Agighiol and the “road-head” at Murighiol together with Lake Razelm (all within the inscribed area). You can see one of the main channels nearby with large boats steaming up and down but the glory of the Delta is to be found in the lakes and reed beds and the examples of human and wildlife they support. The villages are full of thatched houses (photo) and exude a rural atmosphere. The horizons are enormous and the birdlife fine even for those who are not birdwatchers!