Courtesy of Canah along the Danube River, Germany.

Romanian Avram Iancu continues on his scheduled 60-day stage swim of 2,860 km along the Danube River through Europe.

The 41-year-old librarian from Petrosani, Transylvania started his stage swim from Donaueschingen in the Black Forest in Germany. He is now heading into Day 36 as each day is a dynamically different replication of the day before.

Day 59 on August 17th

Iancu started swimming early today at 8 am with plans to swim the 33 km to the 1000 km milestone. At the milestone, the mayor of the city and hundreds of followers promised to greet him.

However, the journey proved to be extremely difficult. The waters of the Danube are still, resembling a lake, as Iancu is approaching the Iron Gates I dam. “It has been very difficult moving forward, requiring continuous movement. If you stop swimming, you are just floating, the river is not moving at all,” he said.

“I managed to swim the distance in three stages, enjoying beautiful weather for the first part of the day. I was joined by three more kayaks (4 in total) and the border control boat. However, over the last 10 km, a strong wind started blowing from the front, making things even more difficult. I felt my muscles burning so badly from all the effort I made today and for pushing myself over all limits.”

When he finally reached his destination, the 1000 km milestone, he was greeted by a large crowd and important national media and received many presents from them including figs which grow abundantly in the region. “Tomorrow I will pass the 1000 km milestone, so there will be hundreds of kilometers left and not thousands“, as this change helped lift his morale.

The distance traversed on the Danube from Day 1 to Day 59: 1,859 km

The distance remaining to be covered on the Danube: 1,001 km

A report on his stage swims between Days 1-9 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 10-13 is posted here.
A report on his stage swim on Day 14 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 15-16 is posted here.
A report on his stage swim on Day 17 is posted here.
A report on his stage swim on Day 18 is posted here.

A report on his stage swims on Day 19-20 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 21-23 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 24-27 is posted here.
A report on his stage swim on Day 28 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 29-32 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 33-35 is posted here.

A report on his stage swims between Days 36-41 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Day 41-44 is posted here.
A report on his stage swims between Days 52-54 is posted here.
A report of his stage swims between Days 55-58 is posted here.
A report of his stage swims on Day 59 is posted here.
A report of his stage swims on Day 60-62 is posted here.
To follow Iancu on Facebook, visit here.

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