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Published: September 4th 2023
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We had to delay dinner for a while as the heavens opened just as we were about to leave. There was plenty of thunder and lightening to accompany the rain as well. Dinner was Italian. Jeff and Tom ordered medium pizzas that would have had to be 45cm in diameter and there was a size bigger than that! I settled for the Chef's Burger which was delicious. (And yes, Tom finished his and Jeff battled manfully leaving one piece which he took away in a doggy bag).
We left at 7:30am today as we had 89kms to travel. Getting out of Smederevo required concentration as the traffic was very busy and the drivers quite aggressive. We were on a side road to the main highway going south, so while there was traffic, once we got out of town it wasn't too bad.
The day started off cool, cool enough for me to wear a jacket for the first time since Vienna but wasn't too bad. The mornings riding was on smooth road and we had a northerly at our backs all day. We were averaging over 20km/h and were flying. By our morning break we had already covered 42kms,
just under half the distance for the day.
We set off again and were slowed down by re-sealing works on the road for a number of kilometers before getting back into stride.
Of note today was the number of mangy dogs that came rushing at us with intent. One in particular took issue with me and bit into my left pannier. I'd rather that than my leg. I'm feeling quite relieved I got rabies shots before I left Australia. There was one notable exception to this. A black labrador came bounding out towards us making us very nervous but he just bounded along beside us tail wagging. Every now and then he'd stop to growl and exchange barking with other dogs behind gates and then catch up to us again. He basically escorted us through the small town, it was quite cute really.
We had made excellent time for the day and there was a reasonable climb before we descended into Jagodina. We stopped for lunch at a small shelter at the top of the hill with only 8kms left to ride just as it started to rain. While stopped, I was going to call our hotel to
tell them what time we were arriving and noticed an email from them which I got in the morning. They were cancelling our booking because they had water issues and were having them fixed. We then had to find a new hotel and book it on the spot which we did before setting off. By now the temperature had dropped considerably and the wind was quite chilly. We all got cold as we descended the 5kms into Jagodina. We then had to run the gauntlet of the crazy Serbian city drivers to the hotel. They are really hard to read, very aggressive and don't show any consideration to cyclists.
Our new hotel for the day was great. We negotiated a room upgrade and were offered hot coffees before showering and warming up.
An afternoon walk up and down the main street yielded a new power adaptor and phone cover for Jeff and a stop at TWO second hand shops (and I didn't complain once). I have to say, Jagodina doesn't appear to have a lot going for it from what we saw. I guess this is not surprising really, the river towns would have been the strategic places
for defenders and invaders alike and hence all of the forts and castles are there.
Tomorrow we head to Aleksinacki a distance of 70kms.
Distance travelled today: 89kms
Distance travelled so far: 3,546kms
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