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//Day 12 /23-03-22 /Timisoara - Vrsac

One day later. 

I left the interesting city Timisoara riding to Vrsac. The route to Vrsac was via a national road as no smaller roads available. Although busy with lorries and considerable traffic it was acceptable/safe to cycle it. The scenery remained flat, the road straight, farmland, every 20 K a small market village. More of the same of the last days. Today and tomorrow there will be no change in scenery. Once I leave Belgrade I will follow an EuroVelo route between Danube and Carpathian mountains which I hope will bring  an interesting change in the scenery.The first part of my route, arriving in Belgrade has always been planned as a training/get used to things part of TBBCA; getting to know my bike, see if my body can do 120 K and testing the (camping) gear. 

Anyway the sun was shining, had plenty of time to listen to the excellent VRT/KLRA podcast on Leopold II (Dutch only) told by Johan Op de Beeck. Thanks to my new bone conduction headset I can do this in a safe way whilst cycling and still hear the traffic.









I reached the Serbian border after 70K. Not a a lot people around, except the border control agents, who were nice and friendly but started heavely frowning when I explained that I will cycle the different Balkan countries with my bike. I asked to take a photograph but that seemed not be allowed. So you have to do with the border booth, which Is not entirely sharp as had to take it in “stealth” mode.





After crossing the frontier, and leaving Romania for a couple of days, I continued the road, which was rolling through the  scenery towards Vrsac. Vrsac was described on the internet as one of the nicer Serbian cities. It’s not bad, a lively place with some parks, shops, restaurants and people enjoying the good weather. I would although not recommend to  make a detour to visit Vrsac, except If you like wine as wine is produced on the hills surrounding the city. 

The reason though I had selected to overnight in Vrsac was trifold. The practical reason it is in the middle between Timisoara and Belgrade.Secondly I wanted to buy a Serbian simcard as soon as I entered Serbian, since Serbia is not part of the European roaming area. The third  reason was that I found a camping site, which was not yet officially open, but the owner of Kamping AMI,  Alexander,  was happy to host me. Although a simple camping site (no electricity or streaming water) the photographs of the site promised beautiful views and a relaxed place. and I was looking forward to test my camping gear. The challenge was to find the place. During our chat conversations Alexander had explained me the way. Which I thought I understood. I needed to cycle up in the hills and at a certain point I would see a small road to the left…..I climbed the hills via  not so good roads but, alas, did not find the road which I needed. I continued climbing , met some people who spoke only Serbian, did not known the camping site also I had no longer phone coverage  so not not able to call Alexander for instructions. The only solution was to descent the hill again to the main road and phone coverage…….So I returned the 8 K down. Once I got hold of Alexander I understood that I need to go back from where I came. …….pff. Eventually I saw a small road to the left, which I started climbing. After a very bad road I was although rewarded with meeting the friendly Alexander ,a great view and camping spot. Alexander explained it was the second season he would open the site and since I was the first guest of the year I didn’t need to pay anything ! We talked about who we were until it became time to pitch my tent on one of the platforms. Once done I lit the fire, opened a bottle of local red wine and enjoyed the views whilst cooking an acceptable pasta with sauce from a jar. At 19.45 I hit the sleeping bag and fell almost immediately in a deep sleep……….







Lessons learned :

  • Nothing better for a good sleep then riding a hill up twice (maybe the 1/2 bottle of wined helped). 
  • Black Horse is great bicycle.
  • More dogs on the road

Song of the day : Hoppipola - Sigur Ros.

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