Day 44

30/09/2011 – Day 44

Novi Sad to Surduk – 66km

Today our objective started out to be Belgrade but we soon realised that this was a bit too far. Leaving Anna’s house we crossed back over that busy road and headed for the river again. As we neared the city centre the road gave way to a smart new paved riverside promenade where cyclists and walkers can stroll along the river away from the heavy traffic. This now extends all the way to the main bridge crossing the river.

Here we turned left into the city to find somewhere for breakfast.  Stopping at the start of the pedestrian zone we sat outside a Chinese café where the waiter spoke English to us straight away, people have been assuming we are Germans most of the time for some reason!

We had some sort of rice sticks, fried in a thin batter served covered in chocolate cream, not very healthy but very tasty. As we sat there parties of German tourists started to walk past with their guides talking into microphones, time to leave.

The centre of Novi Sad is almost totally paved and very clean, it is totally tourist friendly and a must see if you visit Serbia.

However, the route out is not good. You are on a bust main road with heavy traffic. I thought Montreal bus drivers were bad, they are even worse here giving cyclist absolutely no room. You are on this road for about 8km before turning off into a village where there is a shop and a few cafés where you can recover your nerve for the next bit.

Once you leave the village it is back onto the busy road and it is up hill for the next 5km, you climb 200m without and respite at all. The only thing to look forward to is the restaurant at the top where you can recover and have a beer. Once again the menu is only in Cyrillic and you have to guess if you do not speak any Serbian.

At this point we realised Belgrade was not going to be reached today and looked at our options, virtually every town or village between here and Belgrade has accommodation so we decided to keep going until we were tired or it got dark. Plus the wind was now full in the face which made it hard work for the next 25km. Although you are on the road it is not that busy and for a change the surface is fairly good. If it wasn’t for the wind we would have been flying!

There is not much to see here as the road is almost dead straight for 5km, then bends slightly to the right, then is dead straight for the next 5km, and so it goes on until you reach Novi Slankamen. Here you actually re-join the river, although you cannot see it. From here the road is a single track but with a gravel lane to the side wide enough for two trucks to pass, plus the wind is now behind you. Although there is quite a bit of traffic the cars stay on the tarmac and we have the gravel to ourselves. This is a good straight road where we did fly, top gear most of the way.

By now it was getting late and we had that the next town would be the stopping point for tonight. This turned out to be Surduk. As we passed the first few houses there was a sign for rooms to let and we stopped. We rang the bell and waited, chatting about the road so when the lady opened the door she must have heard us. She greeted us in English straight away and welcomed us in. Her son is running the business and asked us to wait while they got the room ready, offering us some of his home made peach brandy. It was good; it was strong.

The room was one of two in a little building at the end of the garden, a sort of log cabin. Although it was not very big it was perfect for one night, the bathroom had the world’s smallest shower but the water was hot. We cycled into the town for food either a restaurant or a shop and ended up having a picnic dinner in the room.

That night we fell asleep to the sound of cicadas chirping in the garden!