Geoff Brock & Bruce Gamble
         
     

Orsova: 26th May 2003

 
 
 
 
   
We woke up suddenly at 04:30 as the ship bumped into something – I looked out the window and saw we were at the Iron Gates lock – Elisabeth had got it wrong again.

After the lock, we entered the gorge and suddenly the river widened. What had once been a valley was now a broad stretch of the river looking more like a lake. Shortly after we docked at Orsova.

   
Most people got on the coaches to go to Baile Herculane. But Bruce and I decided that we really needed to stretch our legs. We could see on the other side of the bay a spire, which Elisabeth told us was an attractive monastery. So we decided to walk there. It turned out to be a very long walk – about 7kms there and the same back. The town was not very attractive, no doubt having been built after the valley had been flooded. But we headed uphill and the houses higher up were very nice and people greeted us as we passed. After a while, we could no longer see the spire for which we were heading. We spotted a very old hunched lady and asked her in our best Romanian "monasteru?" She pointed to a right hand fork in the road and said something incomprehensible. We thanked her and took the path indicated. A few hundred metres later, there was another fork – both now just dirt tracks. A little faint voice behind us made us turn round and the little old lady was waving, again to the right. The path became very steep and passed through alpine meadows. It was beautiful, full of wild flowers. And it was very, very hot, with a clear blue sky.

But the old lady was right, and having left the ship 1½ hours ago, we finally stepped up to the monastery. It was pretty....

...but the views from it were fantastic. It was well worth every effort. We sat for half and hour to get our breath and then explored for a while.
 
We decided to return. As we started back through the meadows, we bumped into the little old lady – she had been heading to the same place. Goodness knows where she got the stamina! We thanked her again and gave her some money, which she accepted with alacrity.
   

As we passed through Orsova again, we bought some wine (£2 a bottle), some chocolate (pence) and some cherries (next to nothing). Just as we got back on board, the heavens opened again with thunder and lightning.

 

After lunch, the sun came out and ship set off down the Iron Gates gorge. It was stunning. As we passed through the amazing scenery, we chatted and shared our morning’s adventures with impressed passengers.

   

The Iron Gates had been notoriously difficult to pass through in former days: before the dam it was a narrow gorge with rapids. One Roman Emperor had made a road and this plaque to commemorate his achievement.

   

 

 

And a modern-day megalomaniac has made his mark, too...

   
   
   
   
   
   
Golubak Castle (I think!)
 
 
©Geoff Brock and Bruce Gamble