Читать книгу The Danube Cycleway Volume 2. From Budapest to the Black Sea онлайн

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Veliki Kazan (Great Cauldron) is the narrowest part of the Iron Gates gorges (Stage 16)

For over 430km from Calafat to Călăraşi (Stages 19–25) our route follows the Danube road (Strada Dunarii), a road built in the mid-19th century to link riverside towns and villages in newly independent Romania. By now the river is flowing through a wide valley with a flood plain up to 30km across bounded by a river terrace that typically rises 50m above the valley floor. The mostly level route passes through a seemingly endless series of villages along the side of this flood plain, climbing occasionally on and off the river terrace. A number of riverside towns are passed, all with declining populations and surrounded by the decaying hulks of abandoned Soviet era factories. The Danube road was once lined throughout by shade giving trees, but many of these have succumbed to disease and been cut-down.

The Romanian Danube road was once tree-lined along its entire length (Stages 19–25)

At Călăraşi, where the Danube divides into two channels, the river is crossed and the going becomes hillier as the route undulates through the hills of southern Dobruja (Stages 26–27) following the eastern branch of the river. This undulating going continues as the route turns north through Dobruja, eventually reaching the foothills of the Măcin mountains (Stages 28–29). The final stages (30–32) circle these mountains, crossing the river twice to visit the two large cities of Brăila and Galaţi before ending at Tulcea, the gateway to the Danube Delta. Optional excursions allow you to visit Moldova and Ukraine (from Galaţi) and the Danube Delta (from Tulcea). There is an alternative route for Stages 27–32 through Dobruja, going from Ion Corvin to Tulcea via Constanţa and the Black Sea coast. See Appendix A for a summary of the stages.