Close to two months have passed since the last forest fire near Stanevo, in which a remaining part of the industrial vineyard burned down. Here is what happened after:
A friend from Stanevo village visited my father in early September and brought the following news: fire has swept away the intruders’ shack in late May, the remains were left lying about and no one came for a time. The intruders did come over a weekend, did some fishing and disappeared not to be seen since.
Perhaps the poor fishing conditions chased them away. Due to the extreme heat the water levels dropped, its temperature hiking up to 29 Celsius with vigorous weed-growth to top it up. Additionally, pirating from the Romanian side by speed-boats using electric contraptions to electrocute fish increased to such an extent that even the fishermen using clonkers for cat-fish have left.
A police investigation did not follow the events of May-August. As written in the last post, this was the burning down of the intruders’ cabin on 22 May, allegedly by lightning, then the great fire devastating a large part of the industrial vineyard (24 June), and the last fire on 4 August, finishing off the remaining part.
By law the strip of land along the Bulgarian Danube bank is national border and, as such, state property. Permanent buildings are allowed only on regulated land (towns, villages, villa zones, etc.). The shack the invaders built classifies as ‘temporary structures’ but they did not bother applying for a permit. The bank is treated much like no man’s land.
Forest fires swept that land regularly in the many years we camped at the place. Neither the police nor the fire-fighters wood take any notice of that, although the villagers had their own firm theories about local arsonism and, indeed, who the main arsonist was. All of that sustained a feeling that the land along the river was a place in which notions of law and order were rather vague.
As for the jackal family the recent news gave some hope. The jackals may have moved in time before the forest fires as by what my father heard from his friend the invasion of Km 727 began as soon as the camp was evacuated on 20 August ’24. It looks like the intruders were waiting for my father to turn his back to begin on the place. The first thing they did was to bulldoze a track down the bluff behind the tent. My father had every reason to think that the jackals had moved base at the first sign of this very radical intrusion. For a jackal, 30 km a night is as nothing. When he runs seriously, he can get it up to 40 and even 60 km/hr. But since the jackals needed access to the river for drinking, they would have not moved very far, maybe just out of harm’s way.
So in a way bulldozing the bluff gives us hope for Boldy, his family, their neighbours and every living creature.
For the next couple of years at least, my father thought it would be wise to set his field camp at a different site along the river . A new place had to be found, and indeed, a good candidate came up with the very first try. I can't wait to introduce it to you.
Here's to hope. For the jackals. For the new site. For more compassion through understanding the living Nature.
