Belgrade Rest Day (not) - Belgrade to Ivanovo 45km 27miles
Upon awaking from our 'sort of' slumber we rethought today.... we felt we just couldn't overstay our welcome, seeing as our hosts so generously allowed us to stay for free.... well not wholly true.... you see we were 'sleeping' directly adjacent to The People's Speedway of Belgrade! A four lane dead straight road that seemed to have no speed limit, or at least not one that was acknowledged by anybody!
We were in agreement, we'd spend a half day in Belgrade then skip town to somewhere more pleasant! All this came to pass, and we toured some of Belgrade's most fashionable precincts and many of the 'more colourful' areas! A city worth the return visit for sure, and our additional time here today was rewarding, but perhaps not so much so as to justify another broken night's sleep with wild dogs barking, and that guy on his noisy motorbike at 3am which provided for a guaranteed night of insomnia!
About 1pm we headed for our free (yes, free!) no. 35 bus back to our bikes, we got changed and rolled out before 2pm. More white knuckling on our exit from the city on the bridge o'er Donau to Pancevo. I held my ground in the right hand lane of the two northbound lanes, but Paul, who arguably had more traffic bearing down on him than I experienced, took to the 'Pedestrian Sidewalk'! Luckily the bridge tended to downhill for the northbound traffic, and we also had a minor tailwind that allowed me to carry over 30km/hr in a 40 zone, that...... yes, you guessed it, nobody observed!
Once over the bridge we were greeted with great signage, and mostly quiet trails and roads where the crazy traffic was avoidable! Seems that Belgrade is where everything crazy in Serbia resides, pretty much as Mira had suggested!
In Starcevo we bought the necessary ingredients to supplement what we had in inventory to prepare our next dinner, as we were beginning to feel that tonight may well be a 'Wild Camping'night!
The official route from here takes a much longer route along the riverside flood dyke than the road. Despite the difference we opted for the longer route as it would be traffic free, but also slower as these routes have an unpredictable surface type. Sometimes we are surprised with tarmac, but more often than not they are gravel, but flat. Here they were gravel but quite potholed, so it was going to be tougher going for sure. As we had already realised that tonight was most likely going to be a Wild Camping job, being away from towns and nearer the river was the best place to be.
Within one hour we found the absolutely perfect wild camp location of an old derelict fishing hut, complete with with paved veranda and a couple of tables and benches for our dining experience!
Paul prepared a macaroni pasta dish that must have had 15 ingredients, and it tasted grrrreat!
We met a local who was investigating our presence at this venue. He was accompanied by a rather large dog, and a hay fork that could both easily have provided 'personal protection' if we had turned out to be hostile.... but we weren't, and as such, he sanctioned our overnight stay by offering us raki and beer with him which we confirmed as acceptable. We think he was returning to be sociable but saw us prepping our dinner so he must have retreated so as to not disturb our meal. We never saw him again til the morning when he drove post waving to us as a form of good bye. He seemed a friendly gentle type, but definitely weary of unusual goings on. We missed what would have been a entertaining get together for sure, c'est la vie!!
Doug&Paul
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