September 19th Stage 48 Veliko Gradiste to Donji Milanovac 74 kms

September 19^th  Stage 48  Veliko Gradiste to Donji Milanovac 74 kms( including yesterday 97 kms)

The Eurovelo 6 signposts in Belgrade are embellished with interesting homilies and quotations from all kinds of people as varied as Ronnie Woods to George Bernard Shaw: “you can dream all you like but sometimes you have to just get out there and do it”…or…”To travel is to compare”…but my favourite is definitely: In the midle (sic) of Serbia and run out of money? Don’t worry, it is an (sic) usual situation for most people here.” which I am fairly certain isn’t from GBS!

But we had a  difficult decision to make this morning. We have four days left before we must return home and hard though it is to accept, the Black Sea, still some hundreds of kilometres away, is not going to be reached in four days.  Not only the guide book but even my friend from the bicycle shop in Zemun yesterday suggest that the ride from the centre of Belgrade to Smederova, crowded with traffic is not very pleasant and that much of the section after Smederova is through an old coal mining area and a steel works. For the first time, therefore, I decided to miss out a stage and drive straight to Veliko Gradiste – about 90 kms further on - and pick up the route there. (I have a plan of doing the missed section on Sunday on our way home and when there is less traffic.  We will see)

Actually the drive to Veliko Gradiste from Zemun was long and tedious. The motorway around Belgrade was crowded and we missed our way and the road from the exit to the river seemed to go on for ever.  I was even beginning to think that it would have been easier to have ridden it!

However, as soon as I got going, which wasn’t until after 1pm, from the surprisingly well-developed town of Veliko Gradiste I felt good. The country road to Golubac, which I shared with tractor drivers harvesting their fruit, all of whom gave me a friendly, almost conspiratorial nod or wave as if to say that we workers and cyclists know how to enjoy the countryside, reminded me of an English country lane until it came out at Vinci on the banks of the river  which is as wide as a lake at this point.  Golubac castle where the road weaves its way under three arches in the walls, is as dramatic an entrance to a gorge as anyone could wish for. The riding now becomes very interesting with magnificent views not only of the empty river but also of the wooded hillsides and open corn fields of the less steep Romanian side which at times seems to be just a stone’s throw away. However, the short tunnels immediately after the arches of the castle walls were a taste of more serious things to come. There are twenty one tunnels between Golubac and Golo Brdo about 75 kilometres along the gorge.  Some of them are nearly 300 metres long and one nearly 400 metres and when they bend they are pitch black. There is a raised half metre wide pavement but it is more dangerous balancing along this than it is riding on the road. What is certain is that my small flashing lights back and front were inadequate for the longer tunnels. Luckily I had with me my trusty Wakawaka lamp and clutching that I

 rode as fast as I could, one-handed, praying that no vehicle would come thundering after me.  So far none has, the traffic being much lighter than I had expected in the gorge, but there are still half a dozen tunnels to go. Just before one of  the longest one today, somewhere between Dobra and Boljetin, the bicycle route avoids the danger by plunging steeply into the bottom of the gorge quite unexpectedly on what I assume must have been the old road. This is all very well, but not only does the cyclist have to climb back out of the gorge to meet the road again, but the road itself climbs up and up to give tremendous views over the river and surrounding hills and at the end of a trying day is thoroughly exhausting. Any irritation though for me was completely allayed by another chance encounter. Climbing out of the gorge and not completely sure that I was still on the right track I enquired the way of a passing lady and her daughter. It turned out that this lady, Stevano, had worked for ten years in Duillier, my neighbouring village in Switzerland! We were as remote as anyone could be…… Extraordinary.  We had a wonderful short conversation. She was the third Serbian of our trip who had worked in Switzerland and who had gone out of his or her way to make our acquaintance and to ask if we needed any assistance.

 Fifteen minutes to the top of the hill in the gathering dusk and a reinvigorating ten kilometre descent to Donji Milanovac where we found a simple room as near to the waters of the river as it is possible to get. A wholesome meal, with delicious home-made bread still warm from the oven, finished with the offer of grapes off the vines in the garden, was the perfect end to another eventful day.

97 kms (including yesterday’s rest day)   

Total from Schaffhausen 1935 kms Total from Galway 3845 kms