Day 31: Serbia

Today I cycled a lot more than expected. I had an early start with no traffic, good roads, some clouds to keep the temperatures low and made a lot of progress.

Until this happened:

The real "road" is on the right side. Cycling on the field was easier though. In the last few days I have always emphasized that the EuroVelo 6 has a good selection of roads. Well, today I have to revise this a bit: Not all of them are good. Even on a "normal" bike this would not have been a lot of fun.

Suffering for a few kilometers I was back on tarmac later on.

After a quick pause for a second breakfast I continued to cross the border to Serbia. This took some time. Not because of any queues (It took probably 20 minutes to cross the border, all that time nobody else was there), but because both the bulgarian and the serbian side took their time to check my identity and had to make some phone calls. Finally I could continue.

I decided to visit the Mokranja Cliffs and Waterfall. I had fantasized showering in the waterfall or at least cooling my feet in the river before. But as was kind of to be expected there was no water and a waterfall without water is not all that impressive. 

The cliffs looked nice though. And there was a water crane as well as some shadow so I spend some time there. The water crane thought he was a pressure washer. When I tried to fill my cup, most of the water got reflected in the cup and ended in my face on the first try. Which was just as well given the high temperatures.

Continuing for 10 km (and one hill) I was in Negotin. I had expected to end my day here, but it was just midday and I still felt fresh and the temperatures were not too high (or I don't feel the heat anymore. It was supposed to be 35°). So I just had a coffee and some lemonade and cycled on. 

When I got back to the Danube I finally found a spot for swimming. Since there is a hydroelectric powerplant downriver from this place, the Danube is more like a large lake and has hardly any current.

In the water I met two local guys that normally work in Munich and talked to them until a snake came swimming by. It had already something in its mouth and was only about 30 cm long, so I was pretty sure it wasn't going to eat us, but the mood changed somewhat after this.

Continuing the road became... a gravel path for a change.

But cycling right next to the Danube compensated a bit for the suffering. 

At the end of the day I had cycled almost 140 km. Far more than anticipated in these conditions. Tomorrow it will get hotter again (40°), but I managed to at least escape the worst heat (Negotin is supposed to get up to 42°). 

From monday on temperatures shall fall to the mid-thirties :)

P.S.: Regarding "ride with gps": From tomorrow on I will disable the live tracking of my route since I got a nice message saying that data volume in Serbia will cost me "only" 12ct for 10kB. I am really happy about the EU regulation so that at least in all EU countries I pay the same for data as in Germany. The tariffs the mobile companies come up with are treacherous otherwise.