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.
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.
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