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.