Donauradweg: Zimnicea - Ciocănești
Zimnicea - Giurgiu - Comana Nature Park - Ciocănești
Today, I was happy to discover that supermarkets in Romania are open on Sundays. This morning, I had to get creative with breakfast by using sparkling water in my cereal since I had run out of milk. Needless to say, I quickly realized that still water would have been a much better choice!
The road to Giurgiu was relatively quiet, with light traffic for most of the time. After that, the road briefly turned into a two-lane highway until the turn-off towards Bucharest. Every 50km I took a break in order to stay in rhythm and not have to stop too often. While shopping, I always topped up my 6l water supplies. In the Natural Park of Comana the butterflies, which are very numerous along the Danube, were very trusting. By the evening, unlike the past few days, I had to put up my tarp again when a thunderstorm rolled in.
Donauradweg: Novo Selo - Belgrad
Novo Selo - Belgrad
In the morning I was bitten by lots of mosquitoes while preparing to continue my journey. Just as I was getting underway, my trusty GPS device (Garmin Dakota 20) encountered an unexpected issue: a firmware bug (out of memory), which prevented it from booting up. Luckily, I discovered that a simple reset trick – clicking into the upper left corner during the boot process – resolved the problem. I recovered as much data as possible using my tablet and transferred the planned tour back to the GPS device, allowing me to continue navigating along the route. This experience taught me an important lesson: from now on, I'll always archive my track recordings daily to prevent losing them due to lack of memory.
After this brief hiccup, I had a wonderful encounter with a friendly Serbian family who welcomed me with open arms. They kindly offered to refill my water and invited me to join them for a traditional Serbian lunch. Feeling refreshed, I continued on to Novi Sad and eventually Belgrade. Just after I had exceeded
100 km there were a few hills with a rough gravel road and a construction site, which slowed me down a little. On the way my chain once jumped off the smallest cogwheel in the back and was stuck so, that I had to unscrew the carrier a little to get it out again, because the carrier's screws stick out a little. To prevent this in future and to protect my chain from now on I did not use the smallest and the largest rear cogwheel anymore and adjusted the limit stop of the rear derailleur accordingly.
That evening, I was looking forward to resting in Belgrade. My host provided me with valuable tips for exploring the city and once again let me feel the Serbian hospitality, when we cooked together in the evening.
Passo San Jorio
Langer aber gut zu fahrender Anstieg zum Passo San Jorio (Teer, Schotter).
Danach wird der Trail schmaler und bietet entlang dem Grenzgebiet von Schweiz und Italien schöne Aussichten in die umgebende Landschaft.
Everest Basecamp Trek (EBC): Namche Bazar - Tengboche
The trek from Namche Bazar to Tengboche offered breathtaking views of the towering mountains that surrounded us.
In the evening, we watched a prayer ceremony of Buddhist monks at Tengboche Monastery, where we took a moment to appreciate its serene beauty and the spiritual atmosphere that enveloped the area.