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Black Sea Adventurers Plan Reed Boat Trip to Egypt

A team, led by German explorer Dominique Goertlitz, assembles a 14-meter long reed boat in the town of Beloslav, Bulgaria, July 3, 2019. Picture taken July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
A team, led by German explorer Dominique Goertlitz, assembles a 14-meter long reed boat in the town of Beloslav, Bulgaria, July 3, 2019. Picture taken July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
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Black Sea Adventurers Plan Reed Boat Trip to Egypt

A team, led by German explorer Dominique Goertlitz, assembles a 14-meter long reed boat in the town of Beloslav, Bulgaria, July 3, 2019. Picture taken July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
A team, led by German explorer Dominique Goertlitz, assembles a 14-meter long reed boat in the town of Beloslav, Bulgaria, July 3, 2019. Picture taken July 3, 2019. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

Adventurers are getting ready to set off on a 3,000-km voyage in a reed boat to test a theory that ancient Egyptian merchants used such as vessels to travel as far as the Black Sea, Reuters reported.

A crew led by German explorer Dominique Goеrlitz is planning to leave the Black Sea port of Varna next month, then try to island-hop around the Aegean and cross the Mediterranean to Alexandria.

The boat Abora IV is still being built in the nearby town of Beloslav, with the help of two members of the Aymara ethnic group from Bolivia - Fermin Limachi and his son Yuri who have flown in to share their expertise using the fragile material.

According to Reuters, Goеrlitz said the Ancient Greek historian Heroditus had cited even older sources suggesting Egyptians "sailed into the Black Sea, to get precious materials they could not find in the Eastern Mediterranean".

The accounts were supported, he said, by the discovery of Egyptian remains around the Black Sea.

Other members of the Aymara group, who live on Lake Titicaca high in the Andes, were involved in earlier Abora expeditions to other destinations and helped Norwegian writer Thor Heyerdahl, who crossed the Pacific in the "Kon-Tiki" balsa-reed raft in 1947.

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Bloody Fingers Are Just Part of the Game in This Traditional German Sport 

Men try to pull the opponent over the table at the German Championships in Fingerhakeln or finger wrestling, in Pang, near Rosenheim, Germany, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP)
Men try to pull the opponent over the table at the German Championships in Fingerhakeln or finger wrestling, in Pang, near Rosenheim, Germany, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP)
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Bloody Fingers Are Just Part of the Game in This Traditional German Sport 

Men try to pull the opponent over the table at the German Championships in Fingerhakeln or finger wrestling, in Pang, near Rosenheim, Germany, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP)
Men try to pull the opponent over the table at the German Championships in Fingerhakeln or finger wrestling, in Pang, near Rosenheim, Germany, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP)

Men in short leather pants and embroidered suspenders risked dislocated digits Sunday as they vied for the top prize at Germany's championship in the sport of fingerhakeln, or finger wrestling.

Around 180 competitors took part in Sunday’s 64th German championship in Pang, about an hour’s drive southwest of Munich.

It's thought that finger wrestling, popular in Germany’s Alpine region and neighboring Austria, originated as a way to settle disputes. The earliest depictions of the sport go back to the 19th century. Participants on Sunday wore the traditional Bavarian dress known as tracht.

Two competitors sit on opposite sides of a table and each hooks one finger — usually the middle finger — through a small leather loop. As soon as a referee signals the start, each contestant tries to pull the other across the table swiftly. The whole thing usually lasts a few seconds, and dislocated fingers are common.

Special attendants sit behind each athlete to catch them should one of them suddenly lose his grip and fly backwards. The winner moves to the next round. By custom, only men take part.

Today fingerhakeln is highly organized and follows strict rules starting with exactly defined measurements for both the table and the leather loop. In Sunday's championship, there were several winners in different weight and age categories.

There are nine clubs in Germany and another four in neighboring Austria, says Georg Hailer, chairman of Germany's oldest and biggest club, Fingerhakler Schlierachgau.

“It’s not dangerous at all,” Hailer said. “Of course, there will be open wounds and small injuries on the fingers from time to time. It looks worse than it really is, because there’s blood.”

It's not just brute force but skill too, said Maximilian Woelfl, a wrestler from the Bavarian town of Laufach.

“There are different techniques — how do I sit at the table?” he said. “How do I transfer my power as quickly as possible to the loop? And of course you need a well-trained finger.”

Competitors warm up by hoisting heavy blocks or pulling on cables with their competition finger.

Later this summer, the Bavarian championships in Mittenwald will once again demand all the strength that the athletes can muster — and perhaps a few patches of skin.