E4 in Southern Serbia: General Comments

Serbia south of Belgrade is very different to the Serbian province of Vojvodina north of Belgrade. Vojvodina is flat, has large fields of crops, and a strong Hungarian influence. The script is largely Latin. I have written about it earlier in my blog.

Apart from the flood plains of rivers, Southern Serbia is hilly or mountainous, the hill farms seem to cover a smaller area than those in Voyvodina, they generally have a few sheep, chickens, maybe goats or cows, a small field of maize, an orchard or a vineyard, not very specialized unlike the large arable farms in Vojvodina. The script is generally Cyrillic. In Southern Serbia there was a strong sense of rural depopulation, people leaving for jobs in Belgrade, Germany or Austria, leaving empty houses, some renovated and awaiting their return at a later stage in their lives. Those left are the elderly. As they die so their houses can become left to decay. The higher, more distant fields are no longer farmed and become covered with thorny, often impenetrable scrub, along with the tracks connecting them.
I have walked through some magnificent landscape in Southern Serbia. Many Serbian mountain groups make day visits to the great mountains and valleys such as Veliki Strbac, Rtanj and Babin Zub. However, long distance footpaths have not historically been a feature in Serbia; the E4, and it's sister the E7 are two created as a result of a European initiative (along with the Sultan's trail), and their development has been limited with, for example, no GPS files of the route being released, something that could be achieved at little cost. Walking alone is also something which surprises people here ("Sam?" I was asked in surprised tones). There is a lot of potential for more people to enjoy these paths if they were better known, not only is there landscapes to admire, there are also various historic and religious places of interest. The fortresses of Smederevo, Golubac, Ram and Sokobanya come to mind, and the monasteries of Tumane, Vratna and Bukovo. Natural phenomena range from the limestone bridges of Vratna canjon, to disappearing rivers or river sources such as Krupajsko Vrelo, there are caves a plenty, for example Ravništarka Pećina and canyons like the Lazarev gorge. Of mountains there is no shortage, from Beljanica to the view of the Iron Gates of the Danube, from Avala to the Stara Planina. Then there is the food, especially the Serbian cuisine offered at some of the private accommodation, along with a warming glass of rakia. For those of an engineering background such as myself places like Majdanpek and the Djerdap dam are fascinating. Clearly lots of reasons to walk through the southern part of Serbia.

The E4, as I have followed it in "Rambling through Serbia", is annoying in places, with some huge meanders to see particular locations, while obscurely avoiding major places like Negotin. The details of the route are also lacking and I hope the GPS files that I have linked to my blog will help others who follow in my footsteps. They were based on finding routes on Google Earth and various maps that seemed to match the trails marked on the small scale maps in "Rambling through Serbia". The maps I used included two GPS maps, Garmin's Adria and Navitrack's Balkan topographic maps, and maps copied from Tourist Information internet sites, the Djerdap Park map was especially useful. For gaining a general impression I bought the larger scale Freytag maps of North and South Serbia. There are detailed maps made by the Military Geographical Institute, but I had no response to my e-mail asking to buy copies. The Stara Planina and Suva Planina hiking maps, which can be purchased online, were also useful. However as rural depopulation occurs, some of the tracks on even the best maps, and on which the E4 relies, are becoming overgrown and will soon become impassable unless someone has responsibility for keeping them clear.

Accommodation is an issue and forced me to do more wild camping than I would like (although I had some beautiful mountain top campsites that I would not have wanted to miss). It helps enormously if places are on booking.com or some similar booking site that does not require a knowledge of Serbian, however there are many areas where lodgings are not covered by online reservation including some large hotels. There is private, bread and breakfast type accommodation listed on tourist association websites which covers many places the E4 passes through, but to stay at these you have to telephone. They are unlikely to speak English which is a problem. I had the additional problem that my phone with a British EE sim card would not connect with Serbian mobile phones. It is also no good just turning up at private accommodation, all you will find is a sign with a telephone number. On occasion I asked an English speaking receptionist or owner of the place I was staying at to ring ahead and book the next night's accommodation. With the notable exception of Zrenjamin, most tourist information offices will not book or even find details of accommodation outside their own municipalities (and often I found the Tourist Information offices closed).

I hope more people will follow in my footsteps, such people bring money into rural areas, and foreign visitors bring money into Serbia, which can only help limit the decline of rural communities. When to visit is something to consider. At the end of March I had snow and my water bottle started to freeze but just a few weeks later in April sweat was dripping off my nose as I climbed with the sun shining above me! Temperatures were however very pleasant for my trip in September and October of 2017. Many places were not open for the season until May 1.

The main negative to walking through Serbia are dogs. They bark at you as you walk through villages, fortunately most cannot reach you due to fences or chains, but there are loose dogs that come at you barking and baring their teeth. Serbia is a high risk country for rabies so a bite from a loose dog is potentially deadly and urgent medical attention is advised.

In general Serbians look pretty solemn as you pass them, just like the paintings on the walls of the churches. This and the barking dogs might make you feel unwelcome. This is not the case. Most of the Serbians I have spoken to are very friendly, many are curious, some even inviting me into their houses for a coffee or a rakia. A cheery "Dober Dan" (good day) does a lot to help break the ice, and even bring a smile to the face of an 80 year old lady dressed in black.

A final point - Serbian dinars are hard to change outside Serbia, there are a number of exchange places just before the border with Bulgaria, you might try there as I found nothing after the border.

Srećan Put!

For the start of my blog of walking through Serbia click here.
My journey continues in Bulgaria see johnpone4bulgaria.blogspot.com.

Update: the Mountaineering Association of Serbia now has a site for the E4 and E7, also see Rolf Gerstendorf website for the E8, he plans to follow part of the E4 in Serbia to fill in a gap in this trail.

Further Update: Based on my travels on the E4 I have written a book "Six Pairs of Boots: Spain to Cyprus on the E4 Trail" by John Pucknell available from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, the Bookdepository.com, lehmanns.de, bookspot.nl, and other good online bookstores.

Another Update: As of October 2022, large sections of the E4 in Serbia are now available as gpx files from Traildino.com. OutdoorActive also has many parts of the Serbian E4 on its hiking layer in the maps on its App.

Me and my rucksack

To Dmitrovgrad in E4 Day 59

Today was my last full day of walking through Serbia on the E4 Long Distance European trail.
Waking up to a sunny day I headed downhill to the Monastery of Sv. Kirik i Julita. There should have been a path according to the map but not seeing one I headed down the ridge along the route it should take tramping on various herbs and flowers among the rocks which were trying to trip me up. The map indicated that the path should make a sharp right turn at the end of the ridge at a height of 1159 metres. On my way to this point I noticed a faint path crossing mine, but it was too far north to correspond to the one on the map. Having reached the end of the ridge and still seeing no path I followed the route such a path should take using my GPS, not so easy on the steep side of the ridge. Eventually I joined up with a path coming from the top of the ridge, I assume the one I saw earlier. This proved to be a good path taking me through trees to the Monastery so well hidden in the valley that you only saw it at the last moment. Just shows that maps, in this case the Geokarta Stara Planina mountain touristic map, are not to be relied upon. This was one of the few maps suitable for hiking that I could get, and while very useful it is not perfect.
I tried the door of the church and finding it open went in. A nun was just finishing some liturgy, so I waited with head respectfully bowed until she had finished. The smell of incense, the icons with their gold outlines, the candles and the bowing and gestures of those visiting give these places a quiet religious atmosphere directly linked with ancient times (although a stone outside suggested the church was built in the 19th century). On leaving the church the nun was convinced that I was trying to find the path up the mountain (it is not very obvious where it starts at the Monastery) while I tried to explain to no avail that I had just come that way. Again lack of language skills caused me a minor embarrassment but we said "Dovidenja" and I headed down the obvious tarmac road.
This took me to the village of Smilovci where there was a shop open so I sat on the bench outside and had a coke and Mars bar for breakfast while the shopkeeper and a man drinking beer next to me tried to ascertain what I was doing and then had a discussion that involved the words for English, Russian and Germans... The road took me by a lake, through another village and up two ridges before I turned off on a little detour indicated in "Rambling through Serbia". This avoid some tarmac but took me very close to the Bulgarian border. I was worried about being stopped by border police. You are meant to register with the police if you are camping, but for someone on foot camping in remote places this is not practical. It was not a subject I wanted to be questioned about, at least not unless I had stayed in a hotel the previous night and so had some recent documentation. Fortunately there were no border police on the track, just a few people digging holes who pointedly ignored me.
I reached the tiny village of Gradina and then headed for the Happy Hotel at Dmitrovgrad. Happy because it is a nice place serving food and drink on a pleasant terrace overlooking the town, not for any nefarious reason.
So here I am enjoying a small bottle of white wine to celebrate crossing Serbia, another country on my walk across Europe.

24.2 kilometres walked today, mainly downhill. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outdooractive.

My journey continues in Bulgaria see johnpone4bulgaria.blogspot.com.

Morning view from my campsite

Dmitrovgrad, last town on my walk through Serbia

Zavojsko Jezero to ridge after Slavinja on E4 Day 58

Quite a variety today, including a hefty 1430 metres of climbing according to my GPS.
Today started by continuing around the lake, passed a house close to my campsite, no doubt the source of the noise yesterday evening. Many such houses dotted the hillside at this end of the lake, all with good views. I shortly reached a junction with a track going back to the tarmac road that I would be following later. Possibly I should have taken it, instead I continued following the track around the lake as it became progressively less used. It was a shorter route by distance but as I left the lake and climbed up towards the road it became completely blocked by branches from some logging operation. I climbed a steep slope to get around them, struggling from one tree stump to another then worked my way back to the path higher up. It was then a few hours walk along the tarmac road. Cars passed with a frequency of one per hour. The lake was not visible from the road which was higher up the valley side but there were plenty of trees, meadows and hillsides to look at.
Reaching the village of Paklestica I topped up my water at the communal tap while inquisitive locals asked what I was doing. I have just about mastered the word for hiking and usually attempt to say the name of the place I am going, in this case a canyon (same word in Serbian). Seeing a British hiker around here is virtually unknown although an English cyclist on the Iron Curtain trail was reported. The village had some picnic tables by the river, with their conical sunshades looked like they belonged on a beach somewhere. I sat down on one and ate my breakfast enjoying the scenery, watched by an attentive dog who checked I did not leave any crumbs.
Some steep uphill walking along a path up a densely wooded slope followed. Rare red and white waymarks gave me some confidence that I was on the right path but were too few to stop me wasting a lot of energy climbing a steep, forestry track that ended abruptly forcing me to descend and pick an older, less obvious path. The path was meant to lead to the Visocica gorge but I was beginning to doubt I would see it through the trees when suddenly there it was. The path followed an old road built into the edge of the steep slope. Too steep and rocky for many trees allowing me to see the gorge far beneath me. It was an incised meander with steep, tree lined valley sides and some large cliffs.
After the overlook the path was more difficult to follow. As I brushed through trees my head, clothes and rucksack picked up tiny green caterpillars or grubs of some kind off the leaves.
My path joined another leading through fields to the village of Rsovci. I heard someone calling on my way but realised it was a shepherd trying get his flock to go somewhere and not addressed to me. I was hoping for a shop in Rsovci to stock up a little, there was one but it was closed with no opening times marked. A helpful man fetched the owner and I bought some snacks and an ice cream for myself and the helpful man. Unfortunately there was some confusion about money. I should have got the shopkeeper to write the amount I owed down, instead I gave more than enough notes and he returned some of the higher denominational ones. Then they confused me with a mixture of Serbian and German. There was a discussion about 2 Euro, 200 dinar and 20 something. I could not understand so after a while the shopkeeper just said OK. Not sure if I underpaid but the shopkeeper had a draw full of change so he could have accepted one of the larger denomination notes I offered. All very embarrassing.
The helpful man then showed me a chapel cut into the cliff on the other side of the river to the village. It included a fresco painted onto the side of the cave as well as numerous icons. It must be an important, local site of interest as a Bulgarian man on his motorcycle was also visiting.
Returning to the village and saying goodbye to my guide, I headed along the road to the villages of Visočka Ržana and Slavinja. After Slavinja I climbed out of the valley on some tracks, a long and (coming at the end of the day) a tiring climb. Once the track had zig-zagged its way to its highest point I turned off to walk up a grassy ridge to a nearby summit with a panoramic view to the north and south. Finding a flat spot, free of many rocks and with a few trees to break the wind I set up camp for the night.
As I finished my tea, waiting for the sunset, the sun which had been shinning for most of the last few days was blotted out by clouds. Towering cumulus clouds followed by lower, black, rain heavy clouds. As I retreated to my tent after checking my pegs and guylines, the wind started blowing and the first shower of rain began. I remember thinking I will never get to sleep due to worrying that the wind will collapse my tent. That was the last thought I remembered before slipping into the land of Nod.

34.5 kilometres walked today, with a 1430 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outdooractive.

Visocica canyon

Path along side of Visocica canyon

Partially overgrown track after gorge

Shrine at Rsovci

Gathering clouds

Babin Zub to Zavojsko Lake on E4 Day 57

A big descent into green, steep sided, wooded valleys which I followed to Zavojsko Jezero  (Zavojsko Lake).
Breakfast was another large meal following three yesterday so my tummy was well rounded as I descended from Babin Zub into the valley of the Rekitsa river, passing streams tumbling down the hillside in miniature waterfalls. The Rekitsa valley took me to the village of Topli Do which mainly consisted of empty houses and notices of people who had died. No barking dogs, just the occasional clink of distant cows bells. The dusty shop still had bags of crisps, packets of biscuits and bottles of pop, but it looked a long time since anything had been weighed on its old fashioned scales. A sign from Topli Do pointed the way to various impressive looking waterfalls a few hours walk uphill. Hopefully I will revisit the area someday, see some of these falls and traverse some of the high, open ridges but today I headed down the valley of the Toplodolska.
My route today was very clear in "Rambling through Serbia" and led me down a tarmac road beside the river. In my planning I thought traffic might be a problem but in two hours on the road only an old fashioned Renault 4, a Zastava and a six wheeled lorry passed (the lorry was matt green, short and squat, with large wheels, the type of thing that went up rutted forest tracks to fetch logs). The river, a tributary of the Tempska, carved its way through red sandstone (similar to the Old Red Sandstone of Devonian age in Britain), with small falls and lots of white water. It was generally hidden by the trees lining the road. In places where the valley grew narrow large promontories of rock squeezed the road higher up the valley sides.
I left the road I was following and walked up a valley joining from the east. This track would lead me to Zavojsko Jezero but first I had to ford the river I had been following. I removed my socks and replaced my boats, rolled up my trousers and prudently packed away my socks, camera, wallet and GPS in one of the dry bags I had for all my other belongings. Prudently, because as I splashed across slippery boulders in knee deep water I lost my balance. Catching myself with my hands I made my trousers and the front of my tee shirt wet. Later in the year I am sure crossing would be less of a problem. I walked on with my wet clothes letting the warm sun dry them out.
The lake was originally created by a landslip in 1963 displacing the local population. It was later drained and a dam built for hydroelectricity. Fortunately no signs or barriers stopped me crossing the dam and I continued along the road and then a track near the lakeside.
I had imagined camping by the lake but either the land fell steeply into the water or the lakeshore was occupied by boats, caravans or fishermen. The later also had little floating, wooden cabins moored on the lake. So I camped in what I thought was a nice, quiet spot in a flattish clearing in the woods. First I was attacked by mosquitoes, and now retreating into my tent to avoid bites I am listening to a load motor doing something with occasional accompaniment by a barking dog.

31.9 kilometres walked today, mainly downhill descending 1380 metres. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outdooractive.

Largely abandoned village of Topli Do

Toplodolska river

Zavojsko Lake

Balta Berilovac to Babin Zub on E4 Day 56

A day of walking uphill, although without yesterday's problems with route finding.
After breakfast consisting of some interesting pastry things wrapped around in a spiral with yoghurt and cherry jam I was off down the road to where the track to the rocks of Babin Zub started. After fording a river, removing my socks so that they did not get as wet as my boots, the climb started. It was up through trees for the next few hours, first oak trees, their leaves bright green and freshly unfurled. Then some beech, and higher up silver birch with vivid leaves. Above them the buds on the trees had yet to burst, and there were many broken branches, maybe snapped by the weight of snow this winter. By Babin Zub itself there were no trees but instead creeping juniper.
Babin Zub means Grandma's tooth, although the mountain has a row of several large rock formations like a row of teeth. The Stara Planina resort was at the top of the track I had walked up, I had booked the Babin Zub guesthouse for the night, but was undecided whether to follow the road straight up to it or climb up to the rocks first. In the end I diverted up to the rocks, rewarded by views back to places I had been, places I would be going to and places, like the peak of Midzor one of the highest peaks in Serbia, which I would not manage to include in this trip. I tried hard to avoid stepping on the many purple crocuses that were bursting from the dead, yellowish grass.
Snow still interfered with short bits of my walk around Babin Zub, as you might expect given the height, the top of Babin Zub is at 1740 metres. Ski lifts and the paraphernalia of ski runs littered the area. I walked down a particularly steep "black run" to the "Ski Cafe" where I stopped for a cup of coffee, watching the people, younger than me, sitting on deckchairs with their beers, admiring the view.
My hotel was a short walk from the Cafe. Not for the first time booking.com had booked me as two people at the Babin Zub guesthouse. In compensation for paying the extra money for two, they gave me full board and I had a late, generously sized, lunch (just as well as the Ski Cafe where I hoped to eat was not serving food). Now the sun has just set with a display of pink and red bands beneath the darkening blue as I write this in the lounge bar of the hotel enjoying a quiet beer.

20.6 kilometres walked today but with a 1480 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outddoractive.

The rocks of Babin Zub form a distance

There were lots of purple crocuses

Ski lifts making the mountain feel rather commercialised

Jalovik Izvor to Batla Berilovac on E4 Day 55

A long day of navigation challenges that can be split into three parts.
The first stage was to get from my campsite on top of the mountains to the road at the small village of Jalovik Izvor. Having watched the sunrise pink and orange above the Stara Planina mountains I walked down the valley. The planned route seemed to have disappeared but with the help of my map I found a route to Jalovik Izvor down another track, but not before after I attempted a path downhill that did not go anywhere, forcing me into a steep climb back up.
Having descended all the way to the village I viewed the locked up church with its separate bell tower. Then it was a climb up the other side of the valley for the second stage of my day to a settlement called Baldic, which did not appear to have anyone there, not even a dog, but it did have a spring where I filled up with water.
Then along a track through woods beside a mountain which ended at a junction. I had planned two possible routes from this junction but the upper route had the best track, so I took this. After a kilometre or so it ended in a meadow surrounded by trees with dense undergrowth, I pushed through the trees in one direction without reaching any path so I turned back and tried the other route. That ended in impenetrable thorny bushes of various types. There were the remains of an old stone building and the map had sheepfolds marked. It looked like pasture land that had been abandoned and taken over by vicious shrubs with sharp thorns. However I could see across the valley back to the previous track. Rather than ending in a meadow it looked like the track continued downhill into fields. So I returned and again tried the upper route and this time found a way out of the meadow through the trees to the farm of Glavcina below (not quite sure where I found that name but I had entered it in my GPS as an important waypoint during my planning before the trip). This farm had a few hens clucking and some freshly tilled fields although fortunately no sign of a dog.
I had spent over an hour and a lot of energy searching out the route, so from Glavcina I headed down to the main road by an obvious track. A kilometre south on the road was a pretty good waterfall with a stall selling homemade produce. Some Bulgarians on a day out from Sofia were buying some smoked(?) meat. Just beyond was a turn off for a monastery, some 1.2 kilometres away, but I was keen to start the third stage of my walk which involved crossing mountains to the Ćuštica road.
Here I met me nemesis. I followed my planned route for a few kilometres including some steep uphills. I then discovered that I had again picked a stream on Google Earth instead of a track. The woodland was dense with thorny shrubs, there was no means of following the stream and there was another 4 kilometres to reach the Ćuštica road. I had no alternative route planned and I had accommodation booked for the night, leaving no time for following random tracks that may or may not lead anywhere. So, very disappointed, I was forced to retrace my steps back to the road. To reach my B&B accommodation in the village of Batla Berilovac it was then a long, hot and dusty walk along roads. A coke at the large village of Kalna helped keep me going, where a few people practiced their English on me. The thought of a cold beer at the Villa Babin Zub (my B&B) was also an incentive. Altogether I walked 39 kilometres and climbed over 1100 metres, far more than intended.
In compensation, the said Villa Babin Zub proved very pleasant with a number of English speaking people staying. An Englishman among them was an excellent raconteur, keeping me amused with stories of his work, their walks in the mountains etc., his Serbian wife helped arranged a very welcome and absolutely gorgeous cold beer and dinner for me.  Some American visitors commented on the amount of food at dinner but I seemed to have little problem cleaning my plate after a long day.....helped by a glass of red wine and a walnut rakia with my coffee (the walnut rakia was a little on the sweet side, the plum was great).

Up to to Jalovik Izvor a gpx file of the trail can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or the route can be found on ViewRanger as johnpon0031. For the trail after Jalovik Izvor village a gpx file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com or the route can be downloaded from Outdooractive.

Waterfall (Vodopad Bigar) with stall selling home made produce

Impenetrable thorny bushes blocking my way

Knjaževac to Jalovik Izvor on E4 Day 54

More ascent than I expected otherwise a pleasant walk.
"Rambling through Serbia" shows the E4 missing the town of Knjaževac but I diverted into the town yesterday both to enjoy the accommodation and to stock up with supplies, I am sure most long distance walkers would do the same. Having stayed the night in the town I chose a convenient route out to avoid retracing my steps too much. I took a quiet tarmac road to the village of Crvenje, from which I could see distant mountains above the blossom of fruit trees beside the road.
After Crvenje, the route was on farm, forest or plain muddy tracks. In my planning I had imagined from the number of farms, settlements and fields on the satellite photos that it was undemanding if hilly terrain. In fact the valleys had steep sides and with two major ascents (and one descent between them) I climbed a cumulative total of 1344 metres according to my GPS. It was also more wooded that I expected.
I skirted the edge of the village of Mucibaba then ate my lunch (bought in Knjaževac before I left) in the village of Donja Kamenica. I sat on a bench in front of what may have once been a community hall, now used as a place for sticking up notices of those who had died. This was opposite a 14th century church. I would have liked to have seen the frescos inside referred to in "Rambling through Serbia" but the church was padlocked. There was a Tourist Information office opposite with a promising sign indicating it might sell coffee. Needless to say it was also locked.
After Donja Kamenica it was a track up a wooded valley which would pass close to the summit of the mountain of Cukar. As I neared the top of the trail it became progressively more overgrown until after the farming settlement of Golema Livada. The buildings here looked mostly abandoned. Then a bit of good trail passed the summit of Cukar, before turning off onto an overgrown track. Here I was following a hiking map of the Suva Planina, the corner of which covered the area I was walking through. Finally, a section of good track passed recent wood cutting activity and a goatherd with his white goats who wished to have a conversation in Serbian with me, but was disappointed.
My campsite is a spot high up with a 270 degree view of mountains and a lovely sense of space. The highest mountains in the Stara Planina area to the east still had streaks of snow, now coloured pink by the setting sun.

32.1 kilometres walked today with a 1344 metre ascent. A gpx file of the trail can be downloaded from wikiloc.com, or the route can be found on ViewRanger as johnpon0031.

Medieval Church of the Holy Mother of God in Donja Kamenica

Campsite for the night