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2011-06-04 A Trip to the Danube Delta

In June 2011 my husband Tom and me joined some of my Romanian colleagues for a long weekend photo-trip to the Romanian part of the Danube Delta.

The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, shared with Romania and Ukraine, is a labyrinth of water and land, made up of countless lakes, channels, islands at the end of a 2,860 km long river. The Danube Delta is the largest European wetland and reed bed, forming also Europe’s largest water purification system. The area is particularly well known for the abundance of birdlife: 312 important bird species are present in the Delta, which is an important stopover and breeding area for many bird species. About 90 fish species are fond here, including populations of sturgeon. It is also one of the last refuges for the European mink, the wildcat, the freshwater otter and the globally threatened monk seal. The biosphere reserve was declared as both Natural World Heritage and Ramsar site in 1991.

from: http://iberianature.com/wildworld/guides/wildlife-of-romania/danube-delta/

Although it doesn't look that far from Bucharest to Tulcea, driving on small country roads through beautiful and mostly uninhabited landscapes took more than 6 hours plus an additional hour for the boat transfer to our hotel, located on an island in the middle of the delta. If you plan a trip to the Danube Delta, it might be faster flying to Constanta and renting a car instead of driving the whole way from Bucharest.

June is definitely not the best time to visit the delta because there are relatively few birds and lots of afternoon storms. On the other hand it is not as crowded. We had lots of fun and i managed to take some nice pictures too.

Clicking on the slideshow opens the album page

  
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