Tulcea (pronounced Tul-cha, and called Aegyssus by the ancient Greeks and Romans), in the Dobrogea region of Romania, was founded in the 7th Century, and immortalized by classic writers, including Ovid.
Today, at a population of about 67,000, Tulcea is an important inland port accessible from the Black Sea via the main Danube channels, and a center for fishing and tourism along the smaller delta channels.
We arrive a few days early to look around, as Tulcea is our starting point for a three-day bird-watching tour on the world-famous, UNESCO-protected Danube Delta.
I am taken by the (fairly short) waterfront promenade with its view of the port, water taxis, fishing boats, ships and many outdoor restaurants.
Photo
below taken May 3, 2012 and posted on WikiMedia by Trygve W Nodeland, who gives
free permission to copy, share and distribute his work under the Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
At one end of the promenade are two things of interest. The first is a statue of paddles. We are headed to Mila 23, which has produced Olympic-winning canoe paddlers. This is a tribute to them and to all paddlers.
The other is a small park with stone-carved statues that are attention-getting.
The Monument of Independence is situated high on a hill overlooking Tulcea.
View of Tulcea from the monument.
The monument was raised to commemorate those soldiers who fell in the war of 1877-1878, which was waged against the Ottomans occupying the region.
It stands tall in the courtyard of the History and Archeology Museum (HAM), which has funding to coordinate, manage and research archeological digs in the region, involving international specialists. HAM is located on one of the many dig sites in the area.
The museum is spread out over a couple of buildings and has fascinating displays. In some of the photos below, you will see ceramic objects that have white in them, which is the work of archeologists completing a broken object, so that we can appreciate it and let it tell a story of the way of life then.
The calligraphy is amazing. I needed my lettering expert to decipher the letters/words in the first photo below.
The stone cairns below acted as an ossuary. I think the sign also said that the bodies were first burned in these, and then stored, but I am not certain.
Walking the grounds reveals displays outside of the museum.
For some perspective on the size of these excavated pots.
The Danube Delta
It's raining the day we are to travel the one-hour, fifty-three km boat ride from Tulcea to Mila 23 where we will spend our nights, have breakfast, then go out in the Delta with our guide and captain in a small open boat. The tour company (Discover Danube Delta) elects to get us a covered water taxi as it's raining hard. This boat can go fast. It's completely enclosed, so you feel like you're inside a cork, and that nothing could prevent you from floating.
Here is a map of the Delta. I have circled Tulcea (starting point), Mila 23 (population 450 and 'home' for the next few days), and Letea one of 28 remote fishing villages in the Delta, where twenty thousand people are scattered and where we travel to on the last day.
The water taxi takes us on quite a speedy and direct route along a wide channel, but on the daily outings, our pilot keeps us in small, meandering channels where the bird-watching is best. The water is often quite shallow, with broken branches sticking up in places, so that he has to go slowly.
How he gets us home every day is a mystery. He never looks at a map or a GPS.
You will see so many lakes on the map. The waterways continuously change as many of the clumps of reeds, like those in the photo below, are broken away by winter winds and form new islands, blocking some channels and opening others.
This, of course, is only a small part of the Danube Delta, the place where the mighty river meets the Black Sea. Our guide tells us that there is no mixing of salt water from the Sea and fresh water in the Delta and that the waterways in the Delta are not influenced by tides. The height of the water in the Delta can be affected by other environmental factors.
Tiny Mila 23 is known in the sporting world for producing Olympic and International champion paddlers and rowers, confirmed by former classmate and friend John Edwards, an Olympic rowing competitor from my hometown and international leader in Olympic canoeing. Ivan Patzaichin, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in
canoe-kayak, is a prominent figure from Mila 23. He is recognized as one of the
greatest champions of the 20th century.
Our guide says if you live in Mila 23, you grow up paddling, then as an adult, you may be paddling, earning a living catching fish. Some people are concerned that with the relatively new presence of motorboats as a new tool for fishers, paddling will soon lose its appeal to young athletes.
Besides us, there is a family of five: grandma, grandpa, mom, dad and a girl of about thirteen on the trip.
The family stay in a lodge in town, and we stay in another just outside of town. We are the only guests at our lodge.
Meet our pilot. His usual occupation is that of a fisherman, but come tourist season, this is what he does to supplement his income.
And meet our guide (the guy standing up). He is usually a farmer, but come tourist season, this is what he does ... and he loves, for he has a university degree in Biology. He also has a very skookum camera and has generously provided some bird photos and the freedom to post them for those of us with inadequate cameras. He amazes us with his bird (and other nature)-spotting abilities.
Both men are perfect for this job, always planning for our comfort and what might interest us and are respectful of both nature and of other boats that we meet in narrow channels.
You might also guess that the weather was cold and wet, which it was for most of the time.
It is in Mila 23 for the first time that we see thatch roofs of a particular kind, made of some sort of reed. In one type, the reeds are bundled up and layered thickly (about 12"). The ends of the reeds may be cut into patterns by the more artistic builders. Such as in the laundry building in the second photo down. Our accommodation is of this type.
View of the end of the thatch.
Our host is all on her own with us, preparing both breakfast and dinner. Her husband is off-island on family business, so she is quite busy with us, the chickens, her gardening, the newborn kittens and all of her other duties.
She serves the perfect wine with dinner:
In another type of thatch roof construction, the reed bundles are laid as usual, then beaten with a wooden paddle that has nails spiking out of it (a leggett). This type of roof is seamlessly shaped over dormers and around curves and creates a smooth-looking finish that looks brushed.
Both roofs last on average twenty years, and with luck up to forty years.
The experts who do this roofing are now few and far between, so it has become quite expensive to have a thatched roof.
It's down on the dock that we will for the boat to pick us up each morning.
After checking in, we walk along the bank to have a look at town.
A few random photos from the Delta.
We pass by several isolated camps that fishermen use either for a short time or for longer during fishing season. They are pretty rough with no modern conveniences.
One afternoon, for a short time, there is a hatch of Mayflies which makes everyone from frogs to birds fat and full. The next morning, there are dead Mayflies everywhere in the water.
Our guide has pulled a water chestnut from a lake and shows us the nut. The males are large like this one, whereas the females are much smaller (and the better ones to eat).
We see two small, different types of snakes swimming along. Neither dangerous. They lay their eggs in the reeds
We pass by many Mute Swan pairs and their chicks.
It's primarily willow trees that line the banks of the water. This is the roots of one that has blown over.
We see many clumps of water lilies, but by summer the entire surface of the lakes will be covered. Some have pink flowers, some white and some yellow.
We see birds who can walk on the lilies without disturbing them and who in fact build their nests on the lily pads. The nests on this floating surface need to be patched up regularly. The sound of frogs is loudest near the lily pads.
In ignorance, I always assumed that lily pads are an invasive pest in waterways, however, I learn that they are vital to the health of the Danube Delta and its biodiversity. Lily pads provide a structured environment such as for the birds and frogs mentioned above. They remove pollutants from the water, cool the water temperature, and produce oxygen through photosynthesis. Their leaves and roots can be eaten by some creatures, and pollinators rely on the flowers.
On our last day, we boat to the remote island of Letea, seeing many birds along the way and then stopping for lunch. Our guide tells us that the Delta tours like this one are keeping many of these little villages alive, that it is mostly older people who live here, and that he fears some will become ghost towns and a way of life will be lost.
We walk out through a meadow and into a forest where wild horses seek out shade. Today we only see the herd from a distance.
This is the chariot that takes us into the heart of Letea for lunch.
There is time to walk around the island. Some random photos:
BIRDS
For those interested in birds, check out the many species in the Delta. The photos below are of some of the most significant ones. Photos include ones we took, some provided by our guide and one taken from a free site on the web where work is not copyrighted.
The Dalmatian pelicans are one of the largest flying birds, with a wingspan of 8 to 12 feet and weighing between 16 to 34 pounds, while being 5 to 6 feet long. They are majestic.
We learn that the smaller while pelican is quite an opportunist. Pelicans do not dive for their food. They skim the water and scoop up fish swimming close to the surface. What they do, is follow the cormorants who dive for fish, but sometimes the fish are lucky and escape, often swimming to the surface, where the pelicans then scoop them. From the frying pan to the fire, as the saying goes.
In the photo below, there is a feeding frenzy of white pelicans, and almost impossible to see are the heads of the cormorants sticking out of the water. It's fascinating to watch.
White pelicans in flight
On the west coast of BC, we are familiar with cormorants, but we learn that there are pygmy cormorants as well as the larger ones we know.
Pygmies
Giant cormorants
The white stork is one of the most common birds that we see in the Delta.
Photo on the right is used with permission from Kadellar on Wikimedia.
A camera cannot capture the golden beauty of a Squacco heron. Smaller than other herons and lovely when flying as the sun reflects off their feathers.
The Danube Kingfisher
Another majestic resident is the White-tailed eagle, slightly bigger in size, but smaller talons than our Bald eagle.
The European Roller
The Egrets here are mostly of the Giant kind.
There are grey, purple and black-crowned night herons here (in addition to the squacco), but no great blues like at home.
One of the most beautiful birds is the European Bee-eater (which does not eat bees).
And we can't remember the name of this little guy.
The only mammals we see are the afore-mentioned wild horses. Our guide fills us in on what lives along the Delta, including the Eurasian otter, European mink, roe deer, golden jackals, racoon dog and lynx dog. He says that the wolf and the fox are close to extinction.
While in the forest on Letea we see several huge patches of disturbed soil where wild boar have been digging and rooting
All-in-all, a good visit to this region of Romania.
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