Day 2 Tulcea to Murighiol

Lovely morning, the clouds have disappeared. Lots of boats of all different sizes are busy out on the water: some are quite large cargo shops; there are smaller but still large ones full of tourists; and small fishing boats.

It is minibus to start point at Nufara where the bikes come off the trailer at the back of the minibus.

We ride through lovely undulating countryside along the most southern Danube arm through the nature reserve, Bestepe Hills to the small fishing village of Murighiol. In the mid-19th century, its name was Mori-Gol, only to evolve into Murighiol in the early 20th century. The Russian-Ukrainian influence on the architecture of the place is pretty visible.


The Delta is formed around the three main channels of the Danube, named after their respective ports: Chilia (in the north), Sulina (in the middle), and Sfantu Gheorghe (in the south). Tulcea is located where the three channels form.

From Murighiol, there is a small launch waiting to take us (and the bike trailer hooked on behind) to the houseboat for lunch. From here, we travel a maze of channels, floating islands and dense forests.

We have the most wonderful lunch on-board: soup, traditional Romanian dolmades (known as Sarmalute in foi de vita), walnut cake - and a few glasses of rosé - very relaxing. And spend the afternoon out on the deck as our houseboat is pulled along by a tugboat, about 35 kms.

Later, the little launch that we had taken from the marina at Murighiol to the houseboat (when we finished our ride), took us across to the shore on the other side of the delta to the village of Sfântu Gheorghe. First mentioned in 1318, the fishing village of Sfântu Gheorghe is well-known for its traditional cooking.

This area is home to lots of birds. Located on the 45th parallel, the Danube Delta makes for a perfect stopping-off point between the Equator and the North Pole for millions of migratory birds.

It was a 30-minute walk to one of the longest strips of beach on the Romanian Black Sea coast and we wet our feet before returning to the launch for our trip back across the water to our houseboat for dinner, another gorgeous sunset and off to bed!

Cycle: 37 kms