London to Auckland

We reached the Danube River after a couple of hours and it was in flood. It was a massive body of brown boiling water moving at about 15kph and with a noticeable slope.The whole river was full of huge logs and debris and we were forever dodging stuff. The PWCs were relishing going down hill. It was raining again and visibility was poor.Because of the bad vis the apparent slope of the river seemed like about 15% and zooming around corners at high speed with not much visual reference was marginal at best. It was cold and miserable again and we froze. Shame about the weather too because we missed a lot of very nice scenery.Went through one small town where the main channel of the river surged through under an old stone bridge with a one meter drop off followed by 1.5 meter standing waves(At least a rafting stage 3 rapid). Entered Austria and the Austrian lock keepers are helping as much as possible. Got dark around 8pm and the ground crew was lost again so we pulled into a little marina just west of Melk and walked up to what was obviously a bar.Wandered in dripping wet. It turned out it was a wedding reception. We were made very welcome.