I woke in the night to the sound of birdsong but checking my watch I found it was only 2:30 am. A nightingale perhaps? As I drifted back to sleep I thought of my mother saying that if there was reincarnation she would come back as a bird, maybe this was her singing me to sleep.
Next time I woke to birdsong it was 5:30 am and I prepared to break camp. It was a sunny day and a pleasant walk up through trees culminating in the sight of the mountain of Stol across the valley, its gray cliffs facing me. I was not climbing Stol but crossing a saddle to the north west of it. Even so it was a climb up to 900 metres with views back to the mountain of Deli Jovan. This was a key point on my trip when the E4 stopped making extravagant meanders and started heading more consistently southwards, towards Sofia in Bulgaria.
On the other side of the saddle I crossed over to a mountain hut maintained by the local Mountain Society. To my surprise it was open and I asked about the route down from the next mountain, Veliki Krs. While the route up was clear from my research I could not work out how to get down on the south west side of it, pictures and satellite photos suggested impenetrable bushes. The caretaker kindly found someone who spoke English after we failed in using Google Translate on my mobile phone. When he arrived 5 minutes later he advised going around the mountain it instead of over it. This was a disappointment as the summit of Veliki Krs looked really good on pictures on the internet and YouTube videos. A bed in the hut was offered and although I had planned to stay there, it was still before midday and as I had not done any planning on the revised route it seemed prudent to carry on. First my name was entered in the visitor's book and I was told the story of the Belgian who walked the E4 through Serbia with the help of local Mountain Societies. Rather than continuing on the E4 after Serbia he was headed for Istanbul but was stopped at the Turkish border because of his dog.
To go around the mountain of Veliki Krs I walked a road route through the village of Veliki Krivelj (big Krivelj), probably not the route they were trying to explain to me at the Mountain Hut which involved Mali Krivelj (small Krivelj), but one I could find on my GPS maps and so reliably follow. If you know of a better route please make a comment below and load on GPS file onto some suitable site. On the way to Veliki Krivelj I saw the edge of an area of mining waste, the nearby city of Bor is a major copper mining centre.
Veliki Krivelj seemed a pleasant place. I topped up with water at the war memorial (copying a local woman) and bought a Sprite and a bar of chocolate at the shop which I consumed on the bench outside (second bar of chocolate of the day, I know, terrible at around 500 kcal each).
A rusted and now illegible sign that might have said no pedestrians unnerved me on the next stretch of road so I hurried on thinking of where I might camp. Turning onto a track for the next section I was in a narrow valley with few camping spots and even fewer not visible to nearby farms. I eventually crossed below a railway viaduct. It was a matter of camping close to the road (I generally like a more hidden spot) or arriving in Borsko Jezero in the dark. I chose the former and am now settled in a patch of nettles by a small stream, a place I hope nobody cares about.
30.9 kilometres walked today with a 925 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com or wandermap.net. The route can also be downloaded from my.viewranger.com as johnpon0029.
Next time I woke to birdsong it was 5:30 am and I prepared to break camp. It was a sunny day and a pleasant walk up through trees culminating in the sight of the mountain of Stol across the valley, its gray cliffs facing me. I was not climbing Stol but crossing a saddle to the north west of it. Even so it was a climb up to 900 metres with views back to the mountain of Deli Jovan. This was a key point on my trip when the E4 stopped making extravagant meanders and started heading more consistently southwards, towards Sofia in Bulgaria.
On the other side of the saddle I crossed over to a mountain hut maintained by the local Mountain Society. To my surprise it was open and I asked about the route down from the next mountain, Veliki Krs. While the route up was clear from my research I could not work out how to get down on the south west side of it, pictures and satellite photos suggested impenetrable bushes. The caretaker kindly found someone who spoke English after we failed in using Google Translate on my mobile phone. When he arrived 5 minutes later he advised going around the mountain it instead of over it. This was a disappointment as the summit of Veliki Krs looked really good on pictures on the internet and YouTube videos. A bed in the hut was offered and although I had planned to stay there, it was still before midday and as I had not done any planning on the revised route it seemed prudent to carry on. First my name was entered in the visitor's book and I was told the story of the Belgian who walked the E4 through Serbia with the help of local Mountain Societies. Rather than continuing on the E4 after Serbia he was headed for Istanbul but was stopped at the Turkish border because of his dog.
To go around the mountain of Veliki Krs I walked a road route through the village of Veliki Krivelj (big Krivelj), probably not the route they were trying to explain to me at the Mountain Hut which involved Mali Krivelj (small Krivelj), but one I could find on my GPS maps and so reliably follow. If you know of a better route please make a comment below and load on GPS file onto some suitable site. On the way to Veliki Krivelj I saw the edge of an area of mining waste, the nearby city of Bor is a major copper mining centre.
Veliki Krivelj seemed a pleasant place. I topped up with water at the war memorial (copying a local woman) and bought a Sprite and a bar of chocolate at the shop which I consumed on the bench outside (second bar of chocolate of the day, I know, terrible at around 500 kcal each).
A rusted and now illegible sign that might have said no pedestrians unnerved me on the next stretch of road so I hurried on thinking of where I might camp. Turning onto a track for the next section I was in a narrow valley with few camping spots and even fewer not visible to nearby farms. I eventually crossed below a railway viaduct. It was a matter of camping close to the road (I generally like a more hidden spot) or arriving in Borsko Jezero in the dark. I chose the former and am now settled in a patch of nettles by a small stream, a place I hope nobody cares about.
30.9 kilometres walked today with a 925 metre ascent. A gpx file of my route can be downloaded from wikiloc.com or wandermap.net. The route can also be downloaded from my.viewranger.com as johnpon0029.
 |
| The mountain of Stol, my path took me over the saddle to the right |
No comments:
Post a Comment