Deliblatska Peščara to Pančevo on E4: Day 12

A long hike today to get to Pancevo.
Starting early it was a wonderful walk across the sandy hills of the Deliblatska Peščara as the sun rose, although to fully appreciate them you probably have to walk a few hundred kilometres over the flat plain of Vojvodina first which could make any hilly landscape appealing. Then it was a welcome breakfast at the Plava Dama restaurant in the village of Devojacki Bunar (a village spread out among the trees with what I took to be lots of small holiday homes).
Just before the village I saw my very first E4 sign Serbia (which caused me disproportionate exitment! ). Sadly it led to a block end, maybe I should have turned right across the fields, but instead I found a way through the trees to a nearby road. The E4 signs continued after the village with red and yellow waymarks on trees, posts and telegraph poles. I decided to follow the waymarks although they deviated somewhat from my planned route. This took a little time as it was often necessary to check down two tracks at junctions to see which one had the red and yellow waymarks.
Leaving the sandhills behind it was along a straight single lane road to the large village of Dolovo. I noticed here how they used a bus shelter to post cards announcing people's deaths, complete with a picture of the deceased. Later in Pancevo the death notices progressed to tree trunks. First I had to get to Pancevo.
My route took my down a valley where the path, overgrown to begin with became impassable. In trying to push my way through I fell and now my arms are covered with nettle stings. Giving up I climbed up the side of the valley in a place where the undergrowth was absent and followed a track along the edge of the valley, probably the one I should have been following in the first place. This soon crossed the valley and took me to along the top of a bluff for some kilometres. Distant views of the chemical works at Pančevo showed me I had still a way to go. I could also see the mountain of Avala and Belgrade was in the haze somewhere. Next section was on the plain beside a line of trees before the final long walk along the road through what appeared to be the lorry district (lorries were parked in front gardens), to reach the Panuka B&B. A much appreciated shower followed and I celebrated completion of my 49 kilometre walk with a "Lav" beer (for a bit of toilet humour).

A GPS track of my route can be found on wikiloc.com,  it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0023, and on Wandermap.net.

My first E4 sign in Serbia

Track through Deliblatska Peščara

Padina to Deliblatska Peščara on E4: Day 11

My walk today took me into the valleys and undulations of the edge of the Deliblatska Peščara.
After a very generous breakfast I headed off with the remains of my breakfast packaged up by Zuzana in plastic bags, these provided me with my lunch and dinner. On leaving town I followed a long, dry valley with grassy sides and an occasional stand of trees. Inevitably I encountered a flock of sheep. Immediately on seeing me the sheepdogs neglected their sheep herding duties and raced towards me barking. I stood still and the dogs stopped a metre or so away. The 23rd psalm came to mind, the bit about "my rod and my staff will comfort me", or just my walking stick in my case. The sheep ran off as a group no doubt catching the shepherd's attention as he gave ineffectual commands to call off the dogs (or maybe he told them to keep a close eye on me). We exchanged "Dober Dans" (good day) and he asked some question, possibly what I was doing here. I wish I had asked the kind student last night to write down "I am an English hiker walking through Serbia" so I could show people. As always I thought of things I should have asked about 12 hours too late. Also in the dry valley was a building with a very deep well and a capstan arrangement for lifting buckets of water. I later saw similar old wells in the village of Vladimirovci. I was surprised that the ground water level was so deep.
After the valley it was undulating fields, some with stubble, some ploughed and some with standing maize. Harvesters were busy at work making good use of the dry if windy weather. The wind was blowing up dust storms behind any moving vehicle. The village of Vladimirovci seemed pleasant, especially the bars and cafes with chairs outside where I stopped for a coffee. My impression of the town was somewhat spoiled by the rubbish tipped beside the track I took on leaving the village (although no worse than what you get in my home area of South Wales). Beside the path to the next village of Alibunar they were busy preparing what looked like well pads, for I presume oil or gas wells. They were spaced at regular distances and pile drivers were hammering down the conductor pipe for the first three sites. In the distance there were a line of wind turbines. Despite the wind none of them were turning. Efforts to produce fossil fuel and renewable energy within sight of each other.
The undulating hills of the area are dunes of windblown loess (silt). In places, especially close to Alibunar, the track cut a little "gorge" through the soft sediment. You could see the burrows made by animals in it, as well as some man made caves.
I had hoped to find some accommodation in Alibunar but the hotel on Google did not exist or had long since closed, and I was told the Tourist Information office had also closed for the day. After posing for some "selfies" with some passing kids, a group of locals with some useful English and a good knowledge of British Premier league teams pontificated on the accommodation options in Alibunar and agreed there were none. It was however agreed that the grass and tree covered, sandy hills of the Deliblatska Peščara would be a good place to camp if a bit far away to walk. So declining an offer of beer I headed off being careful not to cross the zebra crossing unless the "green man" was illuminated (they told me the police were very keen on prosecuting people for "jay walking").
I headed along my planned route to the said hills until stopped by a section of track too overgrown to penetrate. A lengthy detour followed passed fields where harvesters were working late into the evening. I could still hear them from my tent after dark from where I pitched on a grassy (if somewhat tussocky) area among the trees, although a bright half moon was shedding some light. I could also hear the distant barking of a dog and some creature howling. Apparently, not so long ago there were still wolves in this area...

A GPS file of the route I took can be found on wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0023, and on Wandermap.net. I covered 41.4 kilometres today, more than planned due to the lack of accommodation in Alibunar.

Track up dry valley near Padina

Typical fields and pylons disappearing into distance

Near Uzdin to Padina on E4: Day 10

I slept well on a bouncy bed of grass, and when I rose with the sun I could hear a harvester already at work. There had been a shower or two most days since I entered Serbia, and indeed I heard rain falling on my tent overnight, but by the time I was packing my tent, both the tent and grass around it were dry. The harvesters were busy today bringing in the maize while the weather stayed fine, the distant buzz of their engines in earshot much of the day. In Hungary all the machines were lime green Claas units, which looked new, here they seemed older and of various colours including a red Massey-Ferguson unit I spotted.
I walked through Uzdin early in the day, taking a particular look at the church, reputed to be one of the most beautiful in the area, although the door was locked so I could not see inside. By walking around the main street I found a retro looking place serving coffee and enjoyed a duplo expresso with men reading their papers over coffee of one sort or another and three schoolchildren drinking milk. After camping, a morning coffee is a real pleasure and I drank it while watching a Serbian black and white film on TV. Did not know what they were saying but they had some very expressive faces.
Padina, my destination for the night, is a pretty village with a strip of green through the middle, as well as a church, an old well, a pekara, where I bought a very nice cheese and dill roll for lunch and various other shops. The accommodation that the Zrenjanin Tourist office booked for me also has a farming side with a traditional barn built off the ground with sides of wooden slats, that was being filled with cobs of  maize. Zuzana Masarikova, the lady of the house, had a phrasebook, excellent in many ways, although designed for the host or hostess, so it gave the questions for them to ask, but not what my replies might be, which made the conversation a bit stilted, so she kindly sent for a student who could speak excellent English and who gave me lots of useful information while Zuzana prepared a large diner for me of sausage and roast potatoes, with salad and bread. In addition to some background on Serbia the student also told me I was not the first to pass through on the E4, a French person had come before me...

A GPS file of my route today can be obtained from wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0022, and on Wandermap.net. I walked 24.2 kilometres including finding Zuzana's private accommodation.

Uzdin Church

Pigeon on Uzdin Church

Typical barn with cobs of maize 

Carska Bara to near Uzdin on E4: Day 9

I zigzagged across the fields today following the tracks I had spotted on Google Earth, but whether it was the intended route of the E4 I could not say, somewhere in the general vicinity anyway.
The first settlement I came across was an almost completely abandoned group of farm buildings, rather eerie. A little later I began to question if I was on the right route. The route I had picked took me down a barely visible path beside a drainage ditch. Tall rushes filled the ditch which was fortunate as on the other side a dog, who should have been looking after his cows, was barking madly.
The path joined a track after several hundred metres, then the track joined a small road, nicely paved with blocks of stone at some distant time. After various turns I reached Farkaždin, which had some interesting looking houses, some with dates on them, either 1920s, 1930s or 1960s. I stocked up with food. The shop owner was most interested in what I was doing but we had no mutual language to converse in, unlike an English speaking agricultural engineer who stopped his car to have a chat a little later. There are few, if any, people walking through this part of Serbia so I am a bit of a novelty.
Next village was Idvor, birthplace of Mihajlo Pupin, a Serbian scientist who like Tesla had to go to the USA to achieve his scientific success. Then it was cris-crossing the fields again curving southwards as indicated by the map in "Rambling through Serbia" which took me through grassland peppered with purple Hungarian Statice and Rhone Aster, now passed their best, a change after the large fields of stubble, brown earth and occasional stands of maize that were typical of most of my walk today.
After much indecision I decided to camp in an area of scrub (hawthorn, sloe and rosehips) and grassland where I would not be noticed by passing vehicles. As dusk fell some owls (?) circled overhead as the first stars appeared.

A GPS file of my route is on wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0022, and on Wandermap.net. 30.7 kilometres walked today.

Old roadway

M  Pupin's birthplace and typical house front of older houses

Zrenjanin to Carska Bara on E4: Day 8

A shorter day today at 15.6 kilometres, a chance to give my feet a rest.
The Hotel Vojvodina where I am staying is very fine, and the check out time of 12:00 gave me the chance of a relaxed morning of breakfast, some shopping and general wandering around town, followed by coffee and a "snickers" cake, then a haircut back at the hotel. The shopping included water as despite the hotel's 4 stars it advises against drinking the water which is brownish, making you wonder if you flushed the toilet. Although the guidebook says the tap water is safe to drink in Serbia its quality is very variable, sometimes good, sometimes yellowish or brownish as in Zrenjanin and sometimes smelling strongly of hydrogen sulphide as in Melenci for example (possibly the result of "hot springs" contaminating the ground water).
The route today took me down the west side of the Becej river, initially down tree lined streets with single story housing, then opposite a selection of concrete silos, followed by a bit of country before reaching the bridge to Ečka. I walked over to see what all the men were doing. They were fishing from the bridge with nets about one metre square on the end of a length of rope. Their buckets suggested they were catching some eatable sized fish, carp at a guess. Ečka also has a hotel in an old hunting lodge or "Kastel" and a church with the rendering coming off showing the brickwork beneath.
Further on I left the river for the village of Lucino Selo after which the lake of Belo Jezero (white lake) came into view. My lodging for the night, Hotel Sibila, was on one side of the lake. Opposite the hotel is the Carska Bara nature reserve. I followed some of its paths among trees and reeds beside a shallow channel. After disturbing a heron and ducks, and spotting what might have been a great egret through the rushes, I returned to the hotel.
There was lots of shooting or so I thought, but as it repeated at regular intervals I concluded it must be something to scare the birds away from the fish farms next to the hotel. This evening I ate perch from the fish farm with "prom frits". We used to try to catch perch in the canals around Leicester when I was young, returning to the water any rare fish we caught. So I thought I would see what they tasted like. The taste was fine but separating the fine bones made eating a slow process.

A GPS file of my route is on wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0022, and on Wandermap.net.

Belo Jezero Lake

Carska Bara Nature reserve 

Melenci to Zrenjanin on E4: Day 7

Today it was down the DTD (Danube -Tisza-Danube) canal to Zrenjanin.
It was cold and misty as I started out retracing my steps to the edge of Melenci, past the grain silos, and then heading north on a road to the DTD canal, passing a lazily pumping nodding donkey on the way. Then it was a day walking along the west side of the canal. The canal network, dating from Austro-Hungarian times is extensive with two arms joining from the east side over the distance I walked today, although it seems little used for shipping it is clearly a part of the area's drainage system.
Fewer fishermen today, I suppose being Monday they are back at work. Various small jetties have been added to the canal banks by the fishermen, with boats moored to some. In places caravans and even power have been added making fishing a comfortable pursuit in all weathers. Weather was cloudy, with occasional showers, just long enough to get my waterproofs on. Fortunately I was not rushed by barking dogs today and curiously there were no flocks of sheep or herds of cows keeping the grass on the canal banks short.
I stopped at Jankov Most, a village on the way, hoping for a cup of coffee. I noticed some men drinking beer by the pavement, but found they were outside a shop and not a bar. Decided on some chocolate but the lady serving was standing blocking the doorway having a smoke and chat with a man. After a while I said a "Dober dan" and after a short interrogation she let me in to buy a bar of Milka. I don't suppose they often get strangers in Jankov Most.
Maybe I went overboard in booking the Hotel Vojvodina in Zrenjanin, as I appear to have a suite with bedroom, sitting room and two(!) bathrooms. It looks out onto the pedestrianised square at the centre of town. The square has fountains lit at night by various colours and is surrounded by august, but attractive buildings, many dating from the nineteenth century and painted in pleasant colours.
The Tourist Information office is on the square and they were extremely helpful in trying to find and book my accommodation for the next few nights, not easy in such a rural area. Then after a walk around town it was time for steak and chips for dinner  (as I am loosing weight and need building up)!

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or it is route johnpon0021 on ViewRanger.com, and also on Wandermap.com. I walked 32.3 kilometres.

DTD canal

Pedestrianised square at Zrenjamin 

Araca to Melenci on E4: Day 6

The routing for today was to reach the town of Novi Becej then double back along the DTD canal before turning off and heading for Melenci.
I escaped the attention of anyone and had a peaceful night in my tent except for going outside to answer a call of nature, when I saw distant lights at various places on the horizon beneath a cloudy sky. It rained at some point in the night so it was muddy at 6:00 am as I packed up and set off. After a lengthy walk through fields I reached a "lake" with a sign indicating it's importance for birdlife, not that I could see many birds and the lake was hidden by the surrounding rushes. The salt lake is apparently called Slano Kopovo and is a nature reserve. A cowherd was leading his cows (actually he was behind them but I assume he was making sure they went the right way), fortunately his dog considered me sufficiently distant that an all-out attack was not required.
Novi Becej turned out to have a pretty promenade beside the River Tisza which the E4 returns to after its lengthy excursion to Kikinda. The main street was also pleasant and provided me with my morning coffee.Then it was off along the south bank of the DTD canal, which seemed to be connected to the Tisza with a lock. There did not appear to be any boat traffic although a little way up the canal a barge seemed to be under construction and there was a working one moored by the bank.
Passing fishermen, a heron and some swans I came upon the inevitable herd of cows, although the cowherd successful controlled his dogs while lying down relaxing.
Shortly after I reached the point where I planned to turn off. Maybe I was a little premature as there did not seem to be a good path but it soon joined a track heading south which I followed all the way to Melenci. It crossed an extensive area of grassland which was part of the Rusana grassland park, and later some oil or gas wells and a processing plant.
On finally reaching Melenci I was keen to find a bed for the night. The motel I was targeting was closed, but there were several signs for rooms (Sobe) with telephone numbers. I tried one but the call would not go through, then I found a place which advertised rooms but with no telephone number indicating the owner lived on site. With the kind help of a passing neighbour we raised the owner, fortunately their son speaks good English and now I am settled in a lovely room.
Before I had a shower and cooked some diner, I wandered down to the Banya Rusanda, the town's claim to fame. This is a health facility and there were plenty of people in wheelchairs or with walking aids. It stands by a lake, known for its birds, but half dried up today.

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or it is route johnpon0021 on ViewRanger.com, and also on Wandermap.com. I walked 35.6 kilometres today including trying to find a room for the night and visiting the Rusanda Lake.

Part of promenade beside Tisza river at Novi Becej

Lake Rusanda,  partially dried out

Kikinda to Araca on E4: Day 5

Today was a walk alongside the Kikinda canal followed by a visit to the medieval Araca church ruins.
After picking up some provisions and a cup of coffee in Kikinda, I returned to the canal. For the first section I followed the western embankment as there were some industrial works related to gravel on the opposite bank. The canal was wider here than it was yesterday and, judging by the wharfs on the opposite bank, navigable by larger vessels.There were many fishermen enjoying the Saturday sunshine at spots nearer to the town. I also met a flock of sheep although conversation with the shepherd proved impossible due to my lack of language skills. A cowherd tried again later with a bit of German, but again I was unable to catch the sense of what he was saying, I think he was warning me that the level in the canal could rise rapidly when it rains (relevant if I camped close to the water).
Dogs were a nuisance and a worry. On a number of occasions I was rushed by dogs barking. They were either all black or all white in colour, medium size with a furry coat. One never knows whether they intend to follow their mad barking with a bite. Flocks of birds, white, grey and brown, periodically crossed my path. There were some swans, serene and white, at one point. I saw the same drilling rig in the distance that I commented on yesterday. It was nearby as the E4 route doubles back on itself with Kikinda at the apex of the elbow.
After crossing between embankments a couple of times I left the canal and followed roads and tracks to Araca, referred to by the very faded signpost as ruins of the "utmost historical importance". Some walls and arches of the church's nave still stand and part of the tower. It dates from the 13th and 14th century and burnt down in the 16th century by the Turks and never rebuilt. I had planned to camp at the ruins given that the sun was beginning to set, but people were there with their van, a farmer working in the adjacent field and signs warning of video surveillance (although I wondered if the video cameras were actually working). So I walked on until the big, beautiful red sun set beneath the plains, springing some deer which leaped across the fields. Then I pitched my tent on a field of stubble in the gathering darkness beside a little used farm track (a least by humans there were plenty of animal tracks) and hoped that no one would notice me.

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or it is route johnpon0021 on ViewRanger.com, and also on Wandermap.com. I walked 45.6 kilometres today, fortunately it was all on the flat.

Araca medieval church ruin

Sunset over the plain while looking for a camping spot

Ada to Kikinda on E4: Day 4

Today I followed the E4 east away from the River Tisza and across the empty, open plain on roads and beside the Kikinda canal.
At breakfast I was served by the same tall, thin man as last night; grey hair, dark jacket and trousers, white shirt, no tie. Omelette with ham, expresso and orange juice in a restaurant of ballroom dimensions with fancy lighting and a highly polished floor. As I was eating one other guest arrived. Then I was back across the River Tisza. As I was leaving town I noticed a couple of people picking walnuts up off the pavement where they had fallen from trees. Walnut trees seem fairly common in this part of Europe.
Leaving the river behind, the road I followed across the plain appeared as a farm track or not at all on the maps I had, in reality it was a two lane tarmac road; not too busy but with some very fast cars on the long straights. Now that I had walked away from the river there were few trees to break up the open space, just very large fields, mostly with their crops harvested, small drainage ditches and some distant cows. It was flat until I approached the village of Idos where a low, north-south ridge appeared with some unnatural looking summits. I was not sure how much was natural and how much was due to quarrying, maybe for clay. Nearby was a drilling rig and a smaller "wokover" rig for repairing oil and gas wells, a sign I was near the Kikinda oil field.
After the small village of Idos a single track road took me alongside a lake, fringed with reeds, then it was south along the side of the small, Kikinda canal. I had chosen the embankment on the eastern side of the canal, the path seemed clearer, but it did pass very close to some farm outbuildings at one point. This worried me on two counts: first that the farmer might tell me it was private property and to buzz off in some foreign language that I could not understand, and second that a farm dog might bite me. Serbia is a high risk country for rabies, and although I had a course of rabies vaccine almost 20 years ago, my doctor's surgery advised I would need two boosters if bitten. At a minimum this would seriously disrupt my trip. In the event there were only some chickens and a child with blonde hair. The farmer and his dogs seemed to be out in the fields herding cattle. As I approached the road leading to Kikinda, there were some nicely painted nodding donkeys pumping oil out of the ground.
I reached Kikinda well before the time I had (as requested) indicated I would arrive at the accommodation, so I first headed into the centre of this sizeable town, which had an attractive pedestrian area with cafés and bars. There was some kind of festival going on with lots of stalls, a live singer, a funfair and children dressed as....well something rustic with sunflowers, pumpkins and sacking.
After some refreshment I headed to Hostel Arijana which was on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately it was not at the location indicated on the Google and booking.com maps. In addition the phone number on the booking did not answer and the local people I asked did not recognise the street name. I kept being directed to the Hostel Kruna. The ever so nice lady there directed me to where her competitor really was. Once there, an hour or more late, there was of course no-one to let me in. Eventually I gained entry, and then wearily went for a pizza at a handy place across the road.

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or it is route johnpon0021 on ViewRanger.com, and also on Wandermap.com. With my searching for the Hostel Arijana I walked 42.1 kilometres today.

Start of the Kikinda canal

Festival at Kikinda

Senta to Ada on E4: Day 3

It rained all day as I walked down the Tisza river embankment for a third and final day.
One of the joys of travel is trying different foods. This morning I went to the nearest pekara (bakery) and bought a concoction made of flaky pastry, but with more fat in it, stuffed with a soft white cheese (I later discovered that it is called "burek", you can have it filled with cheese or minced meat). By accident I bought something similar for lunch but with a different type of pastry. Before leaving Senta I visited a few sights I missed yesterday, the Art Nouveau fire station, well worth a look, and the memorial to the Battle of Senta, not worth a diversion, although the promenade by the river is.
The next five hours were spent walking in the rain along the easterly embankment of the Tisza river. Trees one side and fields the other. Apart from a JCB (actually a Hidromek) clearing vegetation from around a drainage ditch I saw no other sign of human activity. A few deer, a family of cows (a bull, a cow and two calves) and a yellow gas well was all I saw to break my reverie. I was feeling in low spirits, partly due to the rain but also due to news from home that made me fell guilty that I was here "enjoying" myself.
A graceful, cable stayed bridge with white cables and a curved approach, welcomed me to the outskirts of Ada, although the appearance was somewhat spoilt by some missing covers on the footpath (watch your step) and some rusty railings (should have used galvanised steel).
I am now at the Hotel Park after a quick wander around town with its leafy parks, one on the riverside, Catholic and Serbian orthodox churches and a few interesting looking buildings, although it would be more attractive in the sunshine. I had the menu of the day for my dinner, something that looked like sausages.

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or its route johnpon0020 on ViewRanger.com, or click here for Wandermap.com. I covered 29.8 kilometres today including my walk around Senta.

Walking along the Tisza embankment from Senta to Ada, the river is behind trees on the right

Novi Knezhevac to Senta on E4: Day 2

Not a long walk today and all along the west embankment of the Tisza river.
I did not start very well by spilling yoghurt on the hotel room floor over breakfast (fortunately the waitress was very nice and said "no problem" while mopping it up, later echoed by the cleaning lady as I walked over her newly mopped hallway). Next I bought some apples at a supermarket, apparently I should have found someone to weigh them, instead the checkout lady had to take them to the back of the store to do it while the queue of ladies behind me waited patiently (or so I hoped). In the bakery where I bought a pizza slice and pastry for lunch I tried a "good day" in Serbian only to realise they were all taking Hungarian. The people at Tourist Information at Senta confirmed that Hungarian is the main language in this part of Serbia, and I noticed this is reflected in many of the street names, a remnant of the time when Hungary extended almost as far as Belgrade.
It had been raining heavily yesterday evening and the TV news over breakfast was showing pictures of damaged shop fronts and buildings. The weather forecast was predicting rain today but although the skies were grey it was dry until I reached Senta. The walk was along the embankment of the Tisza river, hidden by trees, although I did find a way through them to eat my lunch on the bank of the river at a spot where a fisherman had moored his boat. This was a flat bottomed affair typical of the area, a bit like a punt but propelled with paddles or an outboard motor. On the other side of the embankment there were fields, many with maize, a warm straw colour and ready to be harvested when the sun next shone. A couple of flocks of sheep with their shepherds were busy keeping the grass on the embankment short.
I passed through one village on route, Adorjan. As I left I passed some men loading bales of straw from a trailer into a barn. One indicated by his gestures that I could help throw the bales up. I declined. They were the old rectangular straw bales which you do not see much these days, having been replaced by larger circular bales.
On reaching Senta I looked around the main square at some of the Hungarian Art Nouveau buildings and a display on the important battle of Senta, where the Turks were defeated decisively. The people in the Tourist Information office were really helpful, they booked my next night's accommodation and gave me some leaflets on the town in English. I went to the café next door to digest them.
Now I am at Anna's guesthouse which is very pleasant as is the English speaking lady looking after it.

A GPS file of my route can be found on wikiloc.com, or it is route johnpon0020 on ViewRanger.com, and also on Wandermap.com. I covered 23.6 kilometres today.

Hotel Royal in Senta 

Senta City Hall

Szeged to Novi Knezhevac on E4: Day 1

Last night I was in Szeged having walked around a large part of Hungary on the E4 European Long Distance Walk (see  johnpone4hungary.blogspot.com). The major highlight of today was entering Serbia. I started early as there was 35 kilometres to walk and a risk of delays at the border or through following a route which was my best guess at what the authors of "Rambling through Serbia" intended.
I left Szeged following the easterly embankment of the Tisza river, sharing the route with some morning joggers and a few people on bicycles. In one of my occasional views of the river I saw gravel being unloaded from a barge, but generally it was hidden by trees. Ploughed fields filled most of my view on my left. I turned off the embankment as planned and followed a route to the road leading to Serbia. The road had a little used cycle path beside it which took me to the border.
My passport was scrutinised by both Hungarian and Serbian border guards at the quiet border post. The one on the Serbian side examined the cover in particular. I don't suppose they have many British passport holders walking through.
The first Serbian village of Dala passed by quickly and then I headed off through fields to return to the embankment of the Tisza river. I was slightly thrown as at this point there were two parallel embankments. As the book describing the E4 through Serbia had the route actually just crossing the river (which is not possible at this point, a ferry is marked on the map but no longer exists) I followed the embankment closest to the river heading South (in fact the two embankments converged several kilometres later). Instead of going through the next village, Krstur, I just kept following the embankment all the way to Novi Knezhevac.
The scenery was similar to Hungary. Occasional glimpses of the river between trees on one side, and fields on the other. The areas of each field may have been smaller than in Hungary and they tended to be laid out in big rectangles parallel to each other, and as in Hungary there were no fences (on later days I found very large fields, as big as any in Hungary). Although most of the land was being used for growing crops I passed two herds of cows each with someone keeping an eye on them. There were also people plowing, cutting the grass on the embankment and collecting wood. None of them paid me much attention, which I was glad about as I was unsure about "rights of way" and private property issues.
Reaching Novi Knezhevac I found the Lovac B&B, which is in a pretty park beside the river. The hotel sent my passport to the police and I am now registered to stay here. I also found a "bankomat" and so now have Serbian dinars in my wallet (I had hoped for a currency exchange at the border but there wasn't one).
Language is inevitably an issue as I know no Serbian. Local people also seem to speak Hungarian but I am little better in that language! Fortunately another resident who spoke English helped me order some food for dinner - grilled chicken, pomfrits and a shopska salad (the shopska salad was a combination of mainly tomatoes, cucumber and white cheese)...oh and a glass of red wine.

A GPS file of my route from Szeged to the Hungarian border can be found here on wikiloc.com, and from the border to Novi Knezhevac the file can be found on here, (alternately routes johnpon0019 and johnpon0020 on ViewRanger.com, or click here and here for Wandermap.net). I covered 35.8 kilometres today.

Bridge over Tisza river at Novi Knezhevac by B&B Lovac

E4 European Long Distance Trail in Serbia

The E4 European Long Distance Walk has a proposed route through Serbia described in a booklet entitled "Rambling through Serbia at a Slow Pace" published by the Mountaineering Association of Serbia (Planinarski Savez Srbije or PSS). I have walked the E4 from its start in the town of Tarifa, through Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Hungary (described here). I wrote a blog starting in Budapest to describe the latter part of my trip through Hungary, to continue an earlier blog from Tarifa to Budapest on the E4 by John Hayes. This blog continues with my walk through Serbia.
The original plan for the E4 was that it would pass through Romania, but no route was developed, instead Serbia took the leadership taking the E4 through their country. The subsequent posts in this blog share my experiences in trying to follow the intended path through this little visited country from Hungary to Bulgaria.
In doing so I confess to some concerns. The language, with its Cyrillic letters certainly looks off putting. I have also met very few people who have visited the country, and those people were all just transiting Serbia on the way to Greece. Indeed this is how I first crossed Serbia in 1981, travelling from Hungary to Greece as a student with a friend, my sister and her boyfriend in an old and overloaded Hillman Hunter car. We saw little but the road, and the rare forays to change money and get some food, were met with people with unsmiling faces. I am hoping it will have changed!
"Rambling through Serbia at a Slow Pace" only gives a general idea of the route, using Google Earth and the rather inadequate maps I was able to acquire, I created a detailed "track" for my GPS which I intend to follow. This was not too difficult in the northern part of Serbia  (in southern Serbia trees often make it difficult to see the paths on Google Earth), however my route may well differ somewhat from that intended and I also expect to have to make diversions from the "track" I created when unforeseen obstacles arise. When I have finished I will put the gpx files of my route on the Internet should anyone wish to follow in my footsteps. At least by reading my blog you will have some idea of what you might encounter.