Kovin to Brjnica 101km 62 miles
Oh what a fine night's sleep was afforded to us both in the Hotel Villa Milano in Kovin. It rained most of the night we reckon, but as predicted by the weather forecasters, it was dry and sunny at 0700h!
We were both awake by 0600h and as such we were fully prepped to leave by 8am. But it was quite perishingly cold outside. Yesterday's 8am start was probably above 20°C, whilst this morning's temp could not have been much above 8C. Paul in shorts with bare hands garnered gasps of horror by passing locals, and me with cycling trousers and light gloves wishing I'd worn heavier ones!
After an hour I could take no more, my fingers could barely operate, so I told Paul I was stopping to put on more gloves. Our coffee stop, at the ferry river crossing was still well over an hour away.... well, it was 90mins, and my hands were still cold, and he was still donning shorts and bare hands!
We arrived at the ferry 'terminal' at 1030 and quickly learned the next departure was at 1130. We soon discovered that one of the two restaurant/bars was open and we headed straight there and ordered Turkish coffees. We also had some fish soup with bread that was very tasty, and very welcome after a 2½hr, very cold ride of 40km! We had a great, if not chilly northerly wind that allowed us to maintain a good pace of 23-25km/hr.
Whilst the worst of the driving behaviour was left behind in Belgrade, a few truckers must have been given some long jobs out of the city today..... Paul&I developed a defense technique.... me behind, with enough mirrors to look not out of place in Brighton, and he ahead.... when I could see a crtical situation developing, like vehicles passing each other and us at the same time (when one or more of them was a truck) I'd shout 'Ditch', and we'd both go there... quickly!! This technique seemed to evoke a more sympathetic response than the 'stand your ground' policy, and they'd actually then slow down in harmony with our projected fear of early demise!
So, 'Into A New World', you ask? The crossing of the Danube/Donau by ferry seemed to transport us much further east culturally than I'd have expected! Ram Castle, for instance was a stronghold of Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II from 1483, and the whole feeling of the place of Ram seemed distinctly more Eastern!
Furthermore, the fortress guards the threshold between East and West. Also flanking the threshold is The Carpathian mountains to the north, the Balkan mountains to the south, and myriad fair to middlin' rivers from north and south adding to the security of this geographically strategic spot. Jason and the Argonauts, of mythical fame, are believed to have been here is search of the Golden Fleece!
We then rode on wildly pleasant and quiet roads for quite some time competing with only tractors for road space, one of which we even draughted behind for 10 mins or so until he turned on towards his destination. The towns of Veliko and Golubac offered us pizza lunch and grocery shopping for our dinner respectively. Veliko was a pretty town with offerings of architectural interest, but Golubac was rather uninteresting apart from the great views down river to the narrowing between the cliffs of the Carpathians and Balkans!
The late afternoon riding was out of this world as we entered the high sided cliff protected section of river holding Serbia to it's south and Romania to the north! You heard me, Romania our target country is just 1 mile to our north over the river, but short of swimming over we have another 2 days in Serbia and 2 days in Bulgaria before we touch Romania, and the 'Home Stretch'!!
Temps rose to near 20°C, before late afternoon cloud cover and shade took it back to 10°C and as we turned up a small valley road to our campsite where it fell further still, and then lower to sub 5°C by bedtime.
We got to our campsite about 5pm, and found it devoid of human life, but with abundant cat life.... 2 kittens and a mother we guess.... all very friendly and most affectionate!! We setup camp as
usual but no one ever arrived to check us in. Very soon we realised that the
campsite must now be closed with furniture all stacked away and toilets/showers
locked up, but fortunately the water services for washing up, and electricity
was still functioning. We arranged furniture to allow for food prep, charged
our devices, a left some cash for the owners return. We had all will but wild camped tonight apart from the picnic table!
Dinner was a delightful
veggie dish of at least 10 vegetables with a side of pan fried potatoes....
much needed as the temperatures are now way below 5°C, so I'm off to bed....
probably with 2 kittens to keep me company!! After dinner and the soak washing the dishes was complete Paul took himself to bed immediately, and I remained awake for
another hour to finish this blog!
Night night!!
Doug&Paul
PS - an addenda on bedtime attire... seeing as the mercury was now below 5°C I was most reluctant to remove any clothing whatsoever.... but I did relent, and took off my shoes.... the socks, underpants, 2 pairs of cycling shorts and cycling trousers remained on, as did the cycling top, jacket, fleece top, cycling gloves and woolly hat!! In addition to all that remained on, I added, another pair of socks, my evening trousers and a pair of ladies leggings&turtle neck top that I bought at a charity shop in Neuberg to act as pyjamas, and another pair of gloves! My 2 season sleeping bag was now well out of range and, I for one, hate being cold in bed.... I'm pleased to say I wasn't! Although I was joined by one of the kittens, I feared he'd pierce my air bed with his short claws as he padded, so out he had to go!! Poor little blighter!
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