Day 47

3/10/2011 – Day 47

Belgrade to Kovin – 81km

After another sleepless night due to the heat and mosquitos we decided to follow the official route all-round the river bank and then through the city centre. First problem is getting to the cycle path itself. Generally this city is not bike friendly, there are very few cycle paths actually in the city, the kerbs are huge and you cannot bump up them without causing damage to your wheels.

Once we were on the path the biggest problem are the cars driving along it. They appear to use the cycle path as a short cut and to bypass the traffic problems. And it is you that has to get out of the way; they treat cyclists with total contempt.

When we found the route signs to take us into the city centre everything was fine until the sign that is supposed to take you through the main shopping street (as indicated on the map), it actually turns you left one street earlier and takes you down a dirty back street with crowded pavements forcing you into the road where there is no space for you.

The pavements are too narrow for cycle lanes and too full of people making it impossible for cyclist to use them, you are forced into the street with narrow lanes and cars that give you no room at all.

Trying to dodge cars and read signs at the same time is impossible. You will get lost, no doubt at all.

Belgrade is the least cyclist friendly city I have ever been to.

And the final nightmare is the bridge across the river to the north of the city. It is a 1.5km long section of dual carriageway with no pavement and no cycle lane. It is the only way over the river and there is nothing for it but to throw yourself into the fast moving stream of trucks, busses and cars (strangely enough I set the fastest speed of the day going over this bridge). When you come off the bridge at the north end there is the added problem of missing manhole covers. Every single one of them is missing leaving large round holes in the pavement without any warnings.

Once across you turn off the madness and are back on the top of the dykes where calmness and peace reign. But as you approach the town of Pančevo you are forced back onto the main road for about 2km which involves another bridge crossing with no cycle path or pavement.

We stopped here for lunch in a little back street bar and had something we randomly pointed at from the menu. Once again it turned out to be far too much for us and dirt cheap.

From here to Starčevo there is a poor to reasonable cycle path, although it has not been purpose built for this, it is more a wide pavement where bikes and pedestrians can co-exist. Once you reach the town you are back in the road with the heavy traffic until Omoljica. Here the road eventually turns right onto a back street. Once again you have to be on your toes as the signpost is after the junction and impossible to see until the last minute.

Now it is 20km of bad track, with heavy rutting and potholes everywhere. This is hard work as the surface is very soft and slows you down. The only comfort is that you are away from most traffic although there are still cars driving along the top of the dykes. If it rains the day before you use this track it will be all but impossible as the surface would turn to mud in seconds. We have not had any rain (or even much cloud) since we left Budapest.

This seems to go for ever and time is fast running out. The sunset behind us was gloriously red as it disappeared and darkness comes quickly on this flat land. As we entered the town of Kovin it was effectively dark and I had to take my glasses off as the dark lenses made it impossible for me to see any more. And without my lenses I can’t see much anyway!

Most of the streets in this town do not have nameplates on the walls or on posts so it is guesswork to know where you are most of the time. The guesthouse we were looking for would have been easy to find if we could find the street. Once again as we looked about for any identification of where we were a young couple came up and asked in very bad English is we needed help. Yet again the friendliness of the Serbian people came to our rescue and they pointed to where we had to go. They smiled as they walked off looking genuinely pleased to have helped.

The place we stayed in is advertised and ‘Derby’ but the sign outside has a totally different name. However, they were happy to see us, had somewhere safe for the bikes and were very happy to help with everything. The receptionist/waiter spoke very good English and despite M’s attempts to use Serbian he insisted on speaking English to us.

The hotel has a restaurant as well which looked very new and smart, the menu was only in Serbian but once again the waiter was happy to translate. The food was all regional without a pizza or burger in sight, which makes a change.