Day 45 - Belgrade to Kovin (42 miles)

I left early again this morning to work my way through the city and along the waterfront before things got too hectic. As I crossed the river I was not that sad to leave Belgrade behind and particularly the bridge across the Danube, busy with two lanes of morning traffic and me trying to navigate the rough kerb of the road and not be pushed around by the blowy side-wind.

As soon as I was across the bridge I was back on the Danube flood dyke. It was a bit like meeting up with an old friend, an old friend with whom you had fallen out but once you catch up again all is forgiven and all is as it should be. I can not say the same for the headwind though which even at this time of the morning was strong and gusting. In keeping with the apparent norm on this part of the route the track on the dyke was unsurfaced, just a couple of thin, bare lines of compacted mud through the grass, not smooth but easy enough to cycle.

For nine miles I rode the dyke, my need to concentrate on the ground in front of me distracting me from the wind. I may not have been doing a blistering pace but my surroundings and the unsurfaced track gave me the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere which brought a sense of relaxation and seemed to negate any urgency to the day. I stopped for breakfast in a cafe in Pančevo, billed as industrial in my guide book but from what a saw a pleasant enough waterside town, and then it was a long stretch on road with an occasional offering of rough cycle track until once again I was back alongside the Danube.

Pančevo

This time I was on a rough mud road with the wind kicking up dust clouds, weaving my way around the worst of the pits and hollows while at the same time trying to enjoy the views. The mud became gravel, faster to ride but still needing concentration, and then once again the twin lines of compacted mud that had started my day. The wind continued to buffet me and I mostly continued to be distracted from it by the need to concentrate on the route, the views and the wildlife: colourful bee eaters would fly up from the grass at the side of the dyke as I approached; swallows like me were battling with the gusting wind; and a terrapin crossing the road eyed me with suspicion when I stopped to photograph it. 

Two miles from Kovin, with the town clearly visible across the fields to my left, I left the grass and mud onto a roughly surfaced track through a wasteland lined with dumped rubbish and household rubble, hardly an inspiring entry to what I had in mind as a small and pleasant waterside town. That aside, by now after some six hours of body and bike being shaken by rough tracks and of fighting the headwinds I felt worn down and I was grateful to be within striking distance of my destination.

I am now in a small hotel in Kovin. There seems little here so I enjoyed a slow, late lunch in the hotel restaurant and read a little about tomorrow's route which has left me with a decision: I have a ferry to catch a few miles further along the river but due to its limited operating times I have to choose between leaving early, missing breakfast, but arriving earlier at my destination or having breakfast and probably arriving very late in the afternoon.