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.
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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment