We wake early in the morning for a eclectic breakfast consisting of what we brought with us and what we found at a nearby supermarket. We are up early because the boat tour starts at 9 and we have to be at the docks by then. Luckily we are ferring by the hotel owner who after all will also be our boat tour guide and driver.
We arrive at the docks and after identifying the boat it is time to board and start on our adventure. We asked for the trip that seemed to give us the best chances of seeing birds while also allowing us to see the major attraction in the Danube Delta, Letea forest.
Soon we start seeing the first birds including our first lifer, a Common Kingfisher. Which no matter the name has escaped us till today, but is out in force during our trip.
As we leave Murighiol we pass through some nice side channels and explore the are marvelling at the houses, some are well maintained and some less so.
But of course we are here for the birds and soon we see quite a few on the lakes and canals on the way. There are cormorants, terns and gulls, and lots of them, sometimes they care about us passing by and sometimes they don’t.
We continue on towards Letea passing through huge canals and narrow canals, with relatively few encounters with outer boats. Whenever the boat is in the middle of the canal there are fewer birds, you can see them much better if you are close to the shore.
Soon we arrive in the major village along our route, Crisan. It has multiple new and shiny hotels and restaurants, we keep wondering how the people are getting here, via boat?
And then we notice the boats, so yes via boat. There is a flotilla of modern boats on the shore of the major hotel here. And then on the other side there are the hulking remains of old boats that were plying the route for tourists and now are retired.
Now we are making our way towards Letea slowly but surely. We are passing narrow canals with gulls watching us as we inch closer to our destination.
And then we are at Letea just in time for our tour to see the famous horses and forest. This part of the journey is describe in a separate entry, here.
Returning we start on a major arm of the river with huge ships passing by, both commercial and passenger. It can be quite impressive and we are happy that our boat is not capsizing as we pass these giants in our small boat.
The canal leads us back to Crisan, this time we are passing a longer stretch of houses. These ones look to be for the actual people who are living there and not so much for tourist usage.
We also notice a few birds including our first Dalmatian pelican and lots and lots of cormorants.
The boat driver tells us we have to buy gas so we experience the adventure of buying gas for a boat in the middle of the Danube Delta. It is a fun experience even though we have to wait a while as the slots at the gas station are occupied.
We then pass an obelisk celebrating the first Romania king before getting lost again into the small channels leading back to our starting point.
It is a beautiful area and we enjoy the waterlilies and the solitude on most of these canals as we look for birds left and right.
The waterlilies seem to be the hunting ground of the Squacco Heron enjoying his frong dinner while the Black Storks rest on top of tree trunks and survey the area.
There are a few areas where it seems we might get stuck but the driver obviously knows what is possible and what not so we make our way steadily back to Murighiol.
The guide makes a few detours for us to see more birds including an area with lots of cormorants and gulls, unfortunately nothing special.
And then just as the sun sets we arrive back in Murighiol after a long day on the water enjoying birds and the beautiful nature. Tomorrow it is time to return to Bucharest, of course on a roundabout way to visit a few more spots on the way.
