Day 37 Wild bore and large horse fly

Last night I was awoken, a few times, by some wild bore.  Not the best way to come out of a coma.  When I began to yell "get, go on, get!"  they, the wild bore, decided to run away, not after some pouty snarls, of course.  I slept on a small beach island across the river from a small town.  apparently my yelling woke up some neighborhood guard dogs, which woke up some other neighborhood guard dogs, which woke up more guard dogs.  The dogs of all shapes and sizes barked for 20 minutes, which kept me up, then things went back to silent.

An hour later this entire episode repeated itself.

An hour after this, the same thing.

It was 3am, I assume, by the time the wild beasts and I decided we weren't going to be friends, and that the neighborhood across the river also needed some rest.

When sunrise came around 3 hours later, so did the mosquitos, and so did the gigantic horse flies. 

This provoked me to pack up my ground sleeping arrangements, and move to hammock sleeping arrangements.  This episode took 10 minutes, but felt like 30 with the buzzing of 2 flying demons around my scull and body.

My rest from 630 am to 11am was somewhat peaceful, other than the fact that it was 90 degrees in the sun that peaked around the trees I was under intermittently every dozens minutes or so. 

So, it was a rough night.  Great location.  Bad sleep.  A sad story after 80km of paddling in the hot sun.

I spent the morning enlisting my phone to do certain tasks with the wireless internet provided by the gods.  And waiting for  John and Toby to catch up, as they were just upstream.  They also got a late jump, of which I was not aware till this evening, so I spent the day paddling slow and alone, which was nice.

I took a break in the sun to bath, and a break in the shade to eat, and really just lolly gagged for 4 hours.  This gave me 20km of forward progress.

I saw a beautiful brown eagle which made my day.   it flew just over my head twice where I got an amazing view of the detail and majesty of this creature.  The day before we saw a black stork, which in Europe is extremely extremely rare.  I also saw another cool castle on top of a hill side.

 

I contacted John and Toby, who were having a slow day, while eating watermelon and icecream, and asked them to meet me at km marker 1360 in the right bank, where I found an awesome beach to camp.

There wasn't much fire wood there. So, for about an hour or 2, I wondered around getting, annihilated by mosquitos and large horse flies, salvaging what little firewood I could.  I got enough wood just as they both were pulling up with their boats.  The mosquitos soon died off as I, somewhat frustrated by the last hour, started a fire for us to enjoy.  John gifted me 3 apples, which I love as a breakfast, and also bought tomatoes, bread, and sausage, with mustard, for us all to enjoy.  We sat around and just bullshitted about our days and moved to good conversation about each other lives, and how to get better.

My one thing, still, is learning to slow down and enjoy the moment   I always think of myself as a patient, easy going person, but when surrounded by calmer individuals, I seem like a road runner.  Its easier said than done, even in Europe in the summer time on a relaxing river( Now with no locks or dams).  But I will continue to make this my goal.  To relax, appreciate the small things, and falling asleep feeling like I took my time at a time when I SHOULD take my time.

We decided, based on what the locals tell us, to not go to Belgrade, as it is a very dangerous city, but instead, take those days in a place called Nova Sad, which is a small college town with a more cultured and calmer population.

Tomorrow we will stop in Vukovar for food and water.  I have, this entire time, been drinking all of my water through a Lifestraw from the Danube River.  The flow on the water bottle is too slow and I just want to chug water when I'm thirsty.  So I've given in, I will spend my money on bottled water finally.  I've regretted this day for over a month, but will probably thank myself afterwords.

Still not tired of eating ramen and tuna for most of my meals ... but I could use some variety.   It's very very difficult to carry the amount of fresh food that I want to on this trip.  Mostly processed meat, bread, ramen, and canned goods. 

Oh how I yearn for a fresh salad with radish and beat and celery and tomatoes and cucumber and onion and pepper and feta cheese and spinach and broccoli and cashews and sunflower seeds and almonds and walnuts and pecans and raisins with grilled chicken and fresh cut apples with creamy ranch dressing... oh, how I yearn. 

I  miss american burgers, and potatoes salad, and Hanks fried chicken with special sauce.

Soon, very soon.  Vama Veche is so close, but the days are getting hotter, the mosquitos are getting worse, and now we are in snake country, say the locals.

And a new enemy is on the list... giant horse flies.  I killed 4 or 5 today all in different ways.  One with my paddle, one with my hand, one with my hat and the other with my shirt.  I gave them all proper burials, as, a creature of this intensity surely has a soul... but no heart.  For if it did, it would not berate the human spirit to lunacy.

The buzzing will go away soon.. the buzzing, will go away soon.  The buzzing will go away soon.....

And the bores are trampling in the woods behind me.  Oh, this is getting interesting.

Km 1360