Achieved a milestone today reaching Beograd or Belgrade as we call it. The walk was not however straight forward.
"Rambling through Serbia" clearly shows that after leaving Pančevo and crossing the Tamis the route drops down and continues close to the Danube for 3 kilometres or so. I assumed that the authors did not intend a walk along the busy E70 dual carriageway so I picked a route visible on Google Earth through the floodplain woodland just to the North. I could not see exactly where it came out but trees hide where tracks are located from passing satellites. It turned out that although there were plenty of tracks in the forest, an exit was hard to find. I came within 200 metres of a nearby abandoned road at one point but after yesterday's abortive attempt to force my way through undergrowth I did not want a repeat failure. After following several false trails I eventually came out of the woods onto the Pančevo road very close to where I left it. Some of the tracks I followed were waymarked with red and white (not red and yellow used for the E4) but as I did not know where the red and white waymarks were going to or coming from this was not helpful. I spent 2.5 hours walking 10 kilometres through the trees without getting any closer to Beograd. While it was a pleasant walk for a little while, I would advise anyone in future to stick to the route marked for cyclists (the Euro 6 cycle route) which I then did until I crossed the bridge into Belgrade. If anyone knows the correct path to take please comment below. In fact the cycle route along the embankment to the Danube bridge afforded good views of the woodland to the south. In places there were man made ponds that swans and various other birds were enjoying, framed by trees just beginning to turn yellow. After a bit of a detour to reach the right (i.e. westerly side) of the bridge, I crossed the Danube for the fourth (and last) time on my trip across Europe. The footpath on the lengthy bridge was not so wide considering the fast cars and buses on one side and the railings separating me from the Danube (and then various gravel works) on the other.
After a long drag along a busy, dusty street I reached the Stari Grad or Old Town, which has a lovely pedestrianised area. I stopped at the Tourist Information office to try and book some accommodation for the following days but of the three places we tried, one was being renovated, the phone was dead at another and the third did not answer. I am now at the Palace Hotel (booked online yesterday with Booking.com) having earlier visited the Kalemegdan gardens to view the sunset. This is a popular activity and the promenades overlooking the Sava river were crowded with people doing the same thing, many getting a "selfie" with the setting sun in the background. The old castle walls truly looked beautiful with the warm light of the setting sun, the scattered floodlights, the trees and hedges.
Belgrade's Stari Grad was shock after the quiet provincial towns and villages I had been walking through. Full of people, the many pavement cafés busy (it is Sunday), buskers singing or playing (some better than others) and artists selling their paintings on the pedestrianised streets. For the first time in Serbia I heard English and German being spoken by tourists visiting the city. Until Belgrade I do not recall encountering a single one.
For a GPS file of my route click on the link here and here to wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0023 and johnpon0024, and on Wandermap.net here and here. Today I walked some 30 kilometres.
"Rambling through Serbia" clearly shows that after leaving Pančevo and crossing the Tamis the route drops down and continues close to the Danube for 3 kilometres or so. I assumed that the authors did not intend a walk along the busy E70 dual carriageway so I picked a route visible on Google Earth through the floodplain woodland just to the North. I could not see exactly where it came out but trees hide where tracks are located from passing satellites. It turned out that although there were plenty of tracks in the forest, an exit was hard to find. I came within 200 metres of a nearby abandoned road at one point but after yesterday's abortive attempt to force my way through undergrowth I did not want a repeat failure. After following several false trails I eventually came out of the woods onto the Pančevo road very close to where I left it. Some of the tracks I followed were waymarked with red and white (not red and yellow used for the E4) but as I did not know where the red and white waymarks were going to or coming from this was not helpful. I spent 2.5 hours walking 10 kilometres through the trees without getting any closer to Beograd. While it was a pleasant walk for a little while, I would advise anyone in future to stick to the route marked for cyclists (the Euro 6 cycle route) which I then did until I crossed the bridge into Belgrade. If anyone knows the correct path to take please comment below. In fact the cycle route along the embankment to the Danube bridge afforded good views of the woodland to the south. In places there were man made ponds that swans and various other birds were enjoying, framed by trees just beginning to turn yellow. After a bit of a detour to reach the right (i.e. westerly side) of the bridge, I crossed the Danube for the fourth (and last) time on my trip across Europe. The footpath on the lengthy bridge was not so wide considering the fast cars and buses on one side and the railings separating me from the Danube (and then various gravel works) on the other.
After a long drag along a busy, dusty street I reached the Stari Grad or Old Town, which has a lovely pedestrianised area. I stopped at the Tourist Information office to try and book some accommodation for the following days but of the three places we tried, one was being renovated, the phone was dead at another and the third did not answer. I am now at the Palace Hotel (booked online yesterday with Booking.com) having earlier visited the Kalemegdan gardens to view the sunset. This is a popular activity and the promenades overlooking the Sava river were crowded with people doing the same thing, many getting a "selfie" with the setting sun in the background. The old castle walls truly looked beautiful with the warm light of the setting sun, the scattered floodlights, the trees and hedges.
Belgrade's Stari Grad was shock after the quiet provincial towns and villages I had been walking through. Full of people, the many pavement cafés busy (it is Sunday), buskers singing or playing (some better than others) and artists selling their paintings on the pedestrianised streets. For the first time in Serbia I heard English and German being spoken by tourists visiting the city. Until Belgrade I do not recall encountering a single one.
For a GPS file of my route click on the link here and here to wikiloc.com, it can also be found on ViewRanger.com as route johnpon0023 and johnpon0024, and on Wandermap.net here and here. Today I walked some 30 kilometres.
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| Deciduous trees in flood plain forest beside Danube |
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| Kalemegdan fortress in the evening |
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