A 50km gallop and a silver lake

We don’t really have a plan for today other than to push on to … somewhere. Luckily Alessandro is on the ball. He tells us we are headed to Srebrno Jezera and that we have to take a ferry to get across the river. He looks up the ferry timetable and tells us we must take the 1pm ferry. They only run about every three hours. While we linger over our lovely home-made breakfast we are already missing the 10am ferry. He tells us to not follow the EV6 path along the dikes; that to take the road will be much quicker and much more pleasant. We are compliant and agree with all of his suggestions, but we barely have enough time to get to the 1pm ferry, so we must make haste!

So we set off at a gallop (a gallop as far as our cycle touring speed goes) and go like stink to the get to the ferry. We heed Alessandro’s wise words and take the roads, rather than the dike-ish EV6. Though we’re in a hurry we stop and take the time to chat with an elder gent we encounter at a T-intersection, who tells us about his travels by bike around Europe after the war. We’re both a bit itchy to get along, but this gent deserves a bit of a listening to.

Apart from our unexpected chat stop, we make haste and don’t really take in much of what’s around us. Our “quicker on the road” route takes us away from the river through Gaj and then back toward the river at Stara Palanka, where the ferry is waiting. We’ve made it with less than 15 minutes to spare!

Our 50km sprint has taken 2:20 – not bad going for us on the heavy barge bikes, and taking into consideration our ten minutes with the gent on the bike.

As a ferry, this thing is more like a floating wooden platform, and a rickety wooden platform at that! There are missing and broken planks. You have to tread carefully. We wheel our bikes on, feeling reasonably confident with them, but it’s a bit unnerving to share the ride with motor vehicles. The river is very wide here – they say 5km – and from the ferry it looks like we are crossing an ocean!

There are other cyclists on the ferry, and as it always happens, we start up a conversation. One of them has a flat and nothing to repair it with, so we leave him with a patch and with enthusiastic thank yous ringing in our ears.

Ram is a small village with an imposing fortress on the hill above. We’re a bit hungry after our ride this morning and look at a restaurant which is right down near the water. Its seems largely deserted but we get a menu and find it is all fish, which is no good for either of us. The good news is our probable stopping point tonight is only about 15km away. We just have to get up and over the hill the fortress is on, then we are home and hosed. A bag of chips or some nuts should get us there.

As we are preparing to set off on our bikes a man comes out of the restaurant. “Where are you going?” he asks. We tell him and he says, “Do you have somewhere to stay?” We don’t, and he tells us Srebrno Jezero is very popular, but wait, he has a friend there who will help us. While we are standing there he pulls out his phone and makes a call. When he hangs up, he tells us he’s arranged a room at his friend’s hotel. “I’m a film producer; I know what it’s like to be on the road and not know where you are staying,” he says. We chat with him a little while longer then ride off, thanking him for his help, not really knowing what we are getting ourselves in for.

The ride up the hill is a bit of huff and puff, but the views from the top are worth it. We share the views with a few other fellow cyclists from the ferry, then set off for Srebrno Jezero. We ride downhill back to the river and we’re there in no time.

A little trepidatious, we arrive at Vila Lago not knowing what to expect. Has our well-meaning friend sent us to a million-star hotel that we can’t afford? Has he sent us to a flea-ridden dive thinking we can’t afford more than that? Have we arrived at a den of iniquity?

None of the above. We’re greeted by a tall and friendly, though brisk, woman who is certainly expecting us and shows us to a perfectly pleasant room. Phew.

Srebrno Jezero means silver lake in Serbian. We are staying beside a man-made ox-bow lake on the right bank of the Duna. The name comes from the way it glows in the twilight. It is a popular tourist spot in Serbia, though it doesn’t seem hugely busy today. We enjoy a beer at a lakeside café and follow that with dinner later. It’s a really pleasant place to hang out and relax, with the fountain in the middle of the lake lit at night.

It’s a sign of our modern minds that we assume somebody is out for themselves rather than helping out. The man we met today for all of ten minutes stood nothing to gain by helping us. It is yet another of the unasked-for kindnesses we have experienced on this trip.

Stats for today:

• Distance: 65km
• Climb: 164m
• Average speed: 22.1km/h
• Average temperature: 20C
• Moving time: 2:56:14
• See our ride on Strava

The beer picture

At the end of a day’s ride, our tradition is to enjoy a beer, and to photograph it for posterity. Today’s beer picture was taken at a cafe alongside the Duna at Srebrno Jezera with a view to a fountain in the river, and with Romania just over the other side of the water.

Along the way today: