Guardian: Destroyed crops, riverbed cyclists and a ‘Rock of Starvation’: how drought has devastated the Danube

A Guardian reporter and photographer traveled 100 miles (160km) along the banks of the Danube, the EU’s longest river, to document the impacts of its record-low levels. The Danube flows through or forms the border of 10 countries, making it most international river in the world. The describe crop loss and failure, unnavigable areas, and drinking water emergencies. Below, an account by the president of the Hungarian Cyclists Club who embarked on a bike ride on the river.

The water is so low in the capital that on 28 July, at about 4.30pm, Gábor Kürti, president of the Magyar Kerékpárosklub (Hungarian cyclists’ club) and owner of a cargo bike company, left his office in central Budapest, jumped on his bicycle and, in an unprecedented feat, rode for 30km along the exposed bed of the Danube, with his journey quickly going viral on social media.

“I wanted to show that if you can cycle along the bed of the Danube for 30km, it means that, because of this climate emergency, we have literally hit rock bottom,” he told the Guardian.

Riding his KTM X-Strada 20 gravel bike, Kürti set off from the mouth of the Szilas stream (Szilas-patak) and made his way across fine gravel, large pebbles, hard-packed sand and mud, eventually reaching the ferry terminal at Vác about three hours later.

“For many people it was an extraordinary adventure. For me, it was heartbreaking,” he said. “Cycling through parts of the river where, as a child, I used to swim or go kayaking, and which I could now cross on a bicycle, filled me with an indescribable sadness. It was like looking at the scene of a terrible accident. Throughout that journey, the scale of the catastrophe was unfolding before my eyes.”

Link.