G & J away from home

Tuesday, 28 April

The Avalon itinerary says:

St. Gheorghe. Danube Delta Excursion

This morning during breakfast, dock in St. Gheorghe, from where the excursion into the DELTA will start. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best preserved of Europe�s deltas, this area hosts over 300 species of birds as well as 45 species of freshwater fish. From its source in the Black Forest to its delta at the Black Sea, the Danube measures 2,845 kilometers in length. The Km markings can be clearly seen on the river banks the length of the river. Depart St. Gheorghe during lunch and enjoy a small CELEBRATION to mark Km �0��the end of the Danube�s journey.

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We inadvertently ending up on the earlier Danube Delta excursion (8.30am) but the cruise director Istvan said that was good - that we'd see more birds.

I didn't actually have much interest in seeing birds, but a small boat ride through the delta until we could see the Black Sea certainly sounded like a 'must do'.  And it was fantastic.

We took our clothing cues from seeing the little boats and the drivers go past the window of our room - they all had jackets and hats on so we rugged up warmly and thank goodness we did as once we got out of the channels and into fairly open water the wind was very cold.

Here is a selfie Gary took as we zoomed along:

Gary and I on the Danube Delta excursion

 I was pretty impressed with the pelicans as I had no idea they were such huge birds - and conveniently easy for even a bird spotting novice to recognise.  Other than that birds didn't capture much of my attention until we saw this:

Stork nest

 A stork (there were two when I first saw it) on a nest - just like in The Wheel on the School.  I was thrilled and - naturally - that was when my camera battery died so I had to wrestle Gary's camera off him to snap that photo as we chugged past.

I had the afternoon off (still nursing my cold) and only Gary went on the tour into the village.

Church at St Gheorghe

 And he arrived back announcing he had brought me a present from the village:

One of the cats of St Gheorghe

Luckily the present was the photo not the cat itself!

When I get a moment to download the photos from my own camera I'll add some more to this post.
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