Montenegro

Into Montenegro and back on the Euro for currency. In short, big hills, big scenery!

Camp site with a bench is always a win.

Southern Serbia, the road to Montenegro

Spent a full week in Belgrade which is the longest I've stayed in a single place. Could have spent longer really it has such a cruisy vibe.

Lake on the way out of Belgrade

Hills leaving Belgrade

Road, ended....

But luckily this little bridge gave me a detour

The terrain through Southern serbia has been absolutely brutal, constant hills. I knew it was hilly but its continual elevation loss and gain much greater than I expected. While tough I've absolutely loved it. Each day was an independent challenge just to get some half decent km's done. While not much space on the road the traffic dropped down a while after Belgrade and some side roads gave great conditions. The road surface quality was also particularly good. Approaching Belgrade was rubbish, you couldn't see which patch of asphalt was original and what was patches, it was a road completely made of patches. Some drivers, especially the truck drivers can be absolute dicks, but overall it has been a grrat section of riding.

Of course with hilly terrain comes scenery and there was no shortage.

My photographic skills couldn't show this but really cool spot with roads cut into the mountain with tunnels, rail bridges and tunnels, rivers with waterfalls, old military ruins on the right.

the cement truck just tipping his waste straight off into the valley....the general littering is pretty disappointing through romania and serbia considering all their natural undeveloped areas.

Dusk on the way out of Zlatibor

Lake outside Zlatibor, morning after a brutal ride.

Weather was hot but much better than when I was approaching Belgrade.

Then the clouds came....

Dam with awesome water colour.

I made it to top of climb just in time before the rain. which stopped for the decent

I met this guy who had ridden up the massive climb to get his cat looked at by the vet. (cat was in the laundry basket) he was a chimney sweeper. them we both got hammered by more rain. And this prick of a truck driver intentionally drive over this huge puddle of water and we both got smashed, guess it didnt really matter as we were wet anyway...

This was the only accommodation I could find. Scary ghetto looking hotel well overdue for a reno or any form of maintenance for that matter. I rode past it thinking it was abandoned but then people in town told me its the only hotel. 10€ for the night. There was previously loved chewing gum left on the vanity.... I'm pretty sure I was the only one there. Found out days later this hotel was the known spot for people to entertain their hookers..... yay.

But perfect weather for the next day. One big last climb to reach Montenegeo.

again, derelict building full of workers and in full operation.

Line up for the border.

Belgrade 2

Jeeze I just read the last post, I  was obviously trying to get it out fast....I couldn't even make sense of some of it.

Couple more things from Belgrade before I forget.

Went to Nicola Tesla museum and conducted 10,000 volts through my body from the air to light up a fluro bulb.

Met a Slovenian craft beer brewer who was in Belgrade running some beer tasting events as they are trying to build up the craft beer industry, so went along to one of his events and met some American expats and had a good couple nights with them, checking out these unadvertised underground bars, even these bars people run out of their apartments and you just have to know that "unit 2" of this building is the place to go...

Some really great cafes amd bars in Belgrade, and of course plenty of rakia which is the Balkan home made spirit around 52%, and it flows very freely...

Belgrade is in my top 3 favourite big cities now along with Barcelona and Berlin.

serbia 1

Serbia day one had me ride along the Danube River through the "iron gate" with some great scenery. Met some romanian cyclists, two German cyclists (going wrong way as usual) and crew of Russians on a road trip at the lookout.

Stopped in a small Serbian town on the village as could hear from a mile away an Australian accesnt. Peter and Bree from Brissie who were travelling by car around Europe. Hung out with them for the night and their local friends from the place they found on airbnb. Had a good night and great to hang with some people from home.

Watched the local volleyball tournament which had the whole town buzzing. Serbia a considerable change from the rest of Europe. Just feels more like the eastern Europe I had expected. Very interesting to observe all the little things, and how certain things are so far behind western culture, even though they are fully aware of how they are.

Next day a bit dusty from beers but definately worked them off as I spent 2.5 hours basically doing some extreme touring on the road to get to these caves. The road soon stooped being a road and slowly got worse and worse going up the mountains but I didn't want to turn back. I learned:

95% of worlds mosquitoes and march flies reside in Serbia
100% of Serbian flora is poison ivy
I took a wrong turn and was never actually on the road I thought I was on....

Eventually pushed my way back to the road and did the rest of the climb. I was wrecked so got into the only hotel in town (luckily the girl in reception did me a solid and charged me the normal price and not the tourist price).

Found out the caves were closed but a few enquiries at reception,  3 trips to the mobile phone shop, then back to reception and apparently a guy was up at the caves then and would sbow me through.

$3 cab ride, never found the guide but I just let myself in and there were a few workers in the caves doing their thing. Didnt seem to care I was there. They were amazing.

Girl from the hotel also showed me the local gold mine which is massive. She earns $283 per month working in the hotel.

dam crossing to serbia

okay?

these locals joined me for a bit, but they couldnt handle the hills

iron gate

I took a wrong turn at some stage without realising, road when from this

to this

had to unload bike to cross over this

by now id already gone to far i ended up hiking with the bike for hours trying to get back to road. google maps was a bit misleading in what os listed as a "road"

but once back on track the ride was good

visited these caves that were amazing, officially they were closed but as its serbia that doesnt mean you cant go in...

guuys working on the stairs

if you used the flash, you could see the humidity

this worker offered to piggy back me through the sections that were wet.... i didnt take him up on the offer, but definately got cold, wet feet

massive copper and gold mine

golubac

beer festival in belgrade

not sure what is goomg on on these sculptures

the ride to belgrade was terribly hot, got some bad saddles sores again but ive ended up staying in belgrade for 7 nights as I've loved it so much. today heading south on my way to montenegro.