Day 10, Silverlake to sculpture garden near Stara Reskovica, 86km, 5hrs32mins

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We started the day in the holiday resort campsite at silverlake. The site echoed many of the towns around here and was somewhat desheveled, the toilet block a bit dirty and the permenatly emplaced caravans growing green mould so that they were starting to blend in with the surounding trees and bushes. We went for a morning swim in the 'silver lake', which is, or was a tributary to the Danube, to clean the previous day's grime off. On the way back, we picked up a huge loaf of soft white bread and two enourmous croisant type things with a white cheese filling from the campsite shop.

The castle - a high point of the day - yes, that road goes right through the middle of it!

After breakfast we trundled on, much of the day's route was alongside the river. Quite a contrast to leaving Belgrade the day before. The sun helped to make the landscape seem very pretty compared with the industrial outskirts of that town.

After the castle at Jerinin Grad - which straddled the road, and once controled all trafic, and to some extent still did. We stood amazed to watch an HGV pass through it's gates with only centimeters to spare.

The road continued alongside the river, and was not that interesting per-say. It's a bit like riding on a motorway. We made a small detour to see Lepenski Vir, a neolithic site, but that was closed for re-construction, so we had a drink at the cafe and continued on our way. First up, then down into a gorge and along a gravel road then back up to the main road. The road continuned to climb up to a super view point. We decended with the afternoon sun on our backs on a good road with lovely sweeping bends, enjoying every minute of each 'free' kilometer.

We met a few other cyclist today, one other English/German couple who were spending most of holidays on the bike by the river and were then going to go to Transilvania - (We met them again at the end of the trip in the Airport in Bucharest!) We waved  at another couple heading up the hill as we were flying down it, so didn't exchange more than a quick 'hi' and a wave as we sped past.

The view from the little house in the sculpture garden we stayed in. We ate in the little red-roofed shelter in the garden.

The last climb of the day was towards a 'sculpture garden', we weren't quite sure where it was, or if it was open, and the fly ridden climb was sapping our moral somewhat. We needn't have worried, as we were welcomed with open arms. Nothing too much trouble for them, even though we didn't share many words in common. There was a bed for the night, supper could be aranged, and it was a very splendid supper served in a little shelter in the sculpture garden, with a wonderful view down to the river. Later in the evening the landlady phoned her english speaking daughter to ask us if everything was ok, and to see what we wanted for breakfast.

A long way from quite a  lot of places...

Supper! A lot of sausages, cheese, a bit like Feta, but harder, fresh tomotoes, fresh cucumber and bread - fantastic. Only a few wasps...

Day 9, Belgrade to Silverlake 119.4km, 6hrs 59mins

We rode out from town, an easy start in the city centre, but got busier and busier as we got towards the edge of town. We left the city over the Pacevo bridge, which was full of fast cars and a few big lorries. We were very glad to be able to ride on the pavement.  Once over the bridge, we were back on a gravel track running parallel with the river. 

 

That bridge - we were happy to ride on the pavement!

The gravel track by the river, fortunately not as hard going as the sany levees in Hungary!

We then came out of this wild track, and onto a dual caridgeway. This was not as bad as it sounds as it had a bus lane that was being respected by the cars.  We rode on past some sort of oil refinery type place, and a big chemicals plant, in what was a couple of hour riding through rather  depressing industrial zones, and sad looking small towns.

We stopped for lunch by a Church and sadly parted company with what remained of the watermelon! What we had left was starting to get a bit, boozy! We saw some Gypsy teanagers searching through the rubish bins, not the nicest of all lunch stops.  We then rode into a nature reserve, intially we saw no change, then rode through large areas of sandy grass, much like a seaside sand dune complex, but actually quite a way from the river. We then rode over some rougher paths down towards our planned river crossing. Here we met a Dutch couple who were on bikes too, we shared a drink while waiting for the ferry. Once they had gone on their way, we ate a lovely fish grill, all very relaxed, as we could see the ferry driver having a  beer, and while he was still sitting there, the ferry was going nowhere!

 Loaded on the ferry!

Once over the river, there was a steep climb and we rode on through a few pretty vilages, the a small 'seaside resort' type place called 'silver lake', here there was a campsite where we pitched our tent for the night.  We noticed quite a few cars with Vienna number plates sitting in the driveways of big posh villas by the roadside. The landscape was very pretty here with hills on boths sides of the Danube.