Mountain Lifestyle: Backa Palanka to Novi Sad

As one of Serbias most popular past times is smoking, the last few apartments we’ve stayed at have had that unmovable stale smoke smell to them and although they’ve been comfy enough, they’ve not been somewhere to linger in of a morning. Today, with blue skies and sunshine, we were keen to get going anyway, so after the standard breakfast of porridge, yogurt and banana, we set out into the day.

Heading out of town involved an unavoidable section of riding along a duel carriage way!

Thankfully, it wasn’t too busy, but when the cars and lorries shot past, you certainly knew about it. We put our heads down and gunned it as fast as we could for the 10km section, averaging a respectable 22km/hour.

The next section of ‘off-road’ riding had recently been traversed by a series of heavy logging lorries. The grassy trail had been obliterated by deep muddy ruts. We ended up having to ride (with a much slower average speed) on the sloping grassy banks on the side of the dyke.

But at least it was traffic free and meant we passed by a delight little ‘beach’ on the edge of the Danube, which we were compelled to stop by for a while.

It was the perfect place to take a break and enjoy a bite to eat. However, on opening my pannier, I soon realised that I had left most of our days food in the apartment fridge. Rats. There were not really any other towns to pass through without a detour, so we pooled what snacks we had and made do, hoping that with our fast start and if we made good time, we’d in the city by early afternoon anyway.

There was still snow on the far banks, over in Croatia, but here in Serbia, it felt wonderful to feel a bit of warmth from the sun, even with low temperatures.

With shorts back on, but still with a wooly hat and lots of layers, we continued on a much nicer tarmac trail alongside the river.

We passed some massive quarry areas that made big trucks look like small toys.

As we neared Novi Sad, the higher, snow covered ground of the Fuska Gora National Park became clearer.

The closer to the city we got, the better the cycle-way became. It will soon be even better as they were still building it on the outskirts!

The edge of the city was like that of many others, with less glamorous tower blocks, industrial areas and the like.

Clare had planned a route that would navigate us into a cool looking bike cafe, which seemed like a fitting end to the days ride - and most importantly, (and unusual for places in Serbia), it was a smoke free cafe.

Imagine our delight at coming into the cafe, where we were greeted by a wall of heat and two vacant arm chairs that looked straight back out at our bikes.

We stripped off some layers, settled into the comfort of the chairs and ordered a drink. We had no desire to move from them for a while!

We had to be at our next apartment for 15:00, so after a very nice stop, we got togged back up and follow the river trail.

We passed by a couple of enormous bridges that we were surprised to find had been blown up and destroyed to prevent invasions as recently as 1999. Some fun navigating through narrow streets and into the old city centre got us close to our accommodation.

Pulling up outside the address was a slight cause for concern, as it didn’t look that welcoming! Thankfully, a cheery chap soon appeared through the gates behind Clare in the photo and ushered us in with good English.

Through the gates was a little courtyard where we could leave the bikes. The owner had never had anyone stay who had arrived by bike before - especially from Budapest! He couldn’t believe us! Up a few steps led to our little patch of tranquility.

Admittedly, we’ve had better views from the apartments we’ve stayed in so far. This one seemed to have a bombed out house outside, that at some point had mostly burned down.

But inside it was a little haven…

After freshening up, and with cleaner clothes on, we walked out into the city centre, which is just at the end of our street.

It was too cold to sit out in any of the many cafes, but there was a nice evening light as we strolled past some of the sights as the church bells rang.

The main square was really impressive and we could see how the place was named European City of Culture 2022 (the first city outside of the EU to be awarded the title).

More research time was rewarded by finding a smoke-free cafe for some celebratory treats for having completed the last ‘big’ ride of the expedition and arriving in Novi Sad.

The final piece of the logistics puzzle seemed to be coming together as well and our host confirmed that you can take a bike on the train from Novi Sad to Belgrade, which will save us another two days of riding in poor weather along busy roads. Result!

With this good news, the final thing left to do was re-fuel after the days ride. This sign outside a burger joint seemed appropriate, so in we went for burger and beer!