Days 7,8,9- into Serbia

A rest day in Severin. Should’ve been great for r and r. But it’s a busy time for admin. We had to sort the bikes find our accommodation, catch up on some work at home write this blog, and most importantly, look for a Laundrette it’s badly needed. We discover there are no launderettes in this part of the world. So Hey-ho, we’ll just have to wait.
Day seven of the ride as we are in Severin we have to cycle the wrong way back to Calafat so we link up the route we need to do that so we can get across to the railway station at Craiova to collect Laura who is coming out to join us on the ride for a few days. It is uneventful right back, apart from a very large hill at the start that I was really worried about, but turned out to be quite acceptable. What I didn’t anticipate was the wind would now be in my face. We made really good time and then 11 km outside Calafat We hit the start of a massive queue of HGV vehicles waiting to cross the border into Bulgaria. They are parked all along one lane and are stuck there for almost a day. The poor Devils. We started early and got the ride done, so we could collect Laura from her train at 1807. However, none of us had factored in the time difference and the train actually arrived at 2007. Sometimes things fall into place and low, and behold in Craiova, we found a Laundrette. Happy days after some coin searching. We managed to get out washing done just time for a McDonald’s – no time for a nice local meal-I’m going to the station to collect Laura. We then drove back to Severin where our rooms are waiting. Unfortunately there was an event on at the hotel and the bar was closed. We made friends with the Knight staff and a deal was struck to get us a late drink.

next morning day 8- we are up in good time for breakfast sort ourselves out and prepare to set off. Todays joker card is that we can’t undo the lock on the bikes. Eventually with some brute force and ignorance, we thought it off. Away we go. 11 km in, we cross the border into Serbia. The border is a bridge across a hydroelectric dam. Luckily, HGVs find it difficult to cross here, and there is only a tiny queue. Border staff, friendly and wave us through after stamping our passports. A great start to the trip for Laura, it’s sunny and 23c!

Serbia is beautiful and we cycle alongside the river Danube as it goes through its gorges stage known as the iron gates. The only downside is to big hills that we have to climb. Laura finds them no problem, but I have to crawl up. That night we got lucky and found some great accommodation and a lovely restaurant known as Nanas in a small town called Golubac. The apartment we hired, even had hot water for showers, and for the first time it didn’t run out.

Day nine. We plan only 70 K today so a late and leisurely breakfast at Nanas before we go back to where we left off start the days rigid. Today is first issue is that it is pouring with rain. We put on our best waterproofs and hope for the best we stop and look at Golubac castle, which is a gem on the side of the river, controlling the gorge, however, as it’s Monday and as it’s us it’s closed. We head off to meet the van in a small town called Veliko Gradiste. About two kilometres before we get to the van, the next disaster befalls us. The pedal on my bike works loose and irreparably damages. The thread on the shank. We have to push and roll the bikes into town to meet the van. Passepartout is waiting. We sit down dry off because by now we’re freezing and after a hot cup of tea, swap pedals and other kit onto the spare bike shortly afterwards we’re off. It is a great run along the cycle path directly beside the river. And we head off to a village called Ram to catch the ferry across to the other side of the Danube. We are making reasonable time, but unfortunately the ferries only leave every three hours. We have to wait almost 2 hours for the next one. At this point, we have had enough so we decide the 50 K is enough so we’ll go and find some accommodation nearby. That we do we find a local restaurant order some food, even though we don’t really know what it is but it’s fine and we’re back to start another day tomorrow.