SERBIA: ALONG THE DANUBE

Posted July 27, 2009 by David McGuinness

After a later start than previous days (no prizes for guessing why!) we drove west along the Danube to Tekija where we had hoped to hire a boat to take us further up the Danube where it is at its narrowest and flanked by enormous cliffs.

Unfortunately it was very windy and not safe to do so which was a real shame as I had been really looking forward to that. We found some lovely homestays on offer in Tekija though and the owners were quite disappointed with us for not accepting their generous offers of wine and plum brandy. “Not today!”

We drove along the banks of the Danube and the road climbed high above the river giving fantastic views along the river and across it to Romania. It was a shame to have missed the boat trip but the views from the river bank certainly compensated.

We drove to Golubac Fortress, a medieval fairy-tale fortress with 9 towers. The fortress is quite stunning and in pretty good shape despite being overgrown and obviously not too well taken care of in recent times.

Then we drove on to Silver Lake, a small Serbian Resort where the Danube forms a pool that is excellent for swimming. We stopped here for the night and took advantage of the pool to take a swim in deliciously pleasant water, before having a beer on the banks. This morning we drove to Viminacium, an ancient Roman site where we were hoping to see the largest fossil of a Mammoth ever found in Europe (just a few months ago). Unfortunately our contact was out of town and the site itself locked. It is due to be opened to the public in about a month but it wasn’t to be today.

From there we drove back to Belgrade where we said goodbye to and swapped contact details with Mikica, our fantastic driver, fixer and company for the last nine days. She will be missed. Now a couple of days of admin, meetings etc. before I head up to the North to check out Vojvodina.

This blog is part of an Off-The-Beaten-Track Travel Diary. Click on the links below to navigate through this journey.