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Cozla - Statue of Decebalus - Iron Gate (Border Romania/Serbia) - Border Serbia/Bulgaria - Bregovo

In the morning, I still felt some soreness in my legs but started the day cycling smoothly along the road toward the impressive statue of Decebalus. Today to prevent a potassium deficiency and to consume all my reserves until Constanta, I increased my electrolyte intake. The traffic became quite heavy as I approached the Iron Gate. After crossing into Serbia, I continued through the Cyrillic part of Serbia towards Bulgaria.

At a bakery stop, I missed out on sweet croissants, ending up with one croissant filled with a soft sausage and another with something that had the consistency of raw minced meat. Nevertheless, the Danube remained as large and beautiful as ever, and I enjoyed quieter roads with minimal traffic. In the last Serbian town before the border, I encountered the next two fellow cyclists on a tandem bike, also following the Danube Bike Path. That evening, I came across a charming local celebration, with children dressed in colorful costumes.

Crossing into Bulgaria, I faced another challenge with money exchange, as there was no possibility to exchange Serbian money. To avoid withdrawing cash in Bulgaria, I stocked up my supplies in Serbia before entering Bulgaria. After passing through the first Bulgarian town, I set up camp for the night. Unfortunately, it was near a thorn hedge and my air mattress developed a leak, and I also lost a tent peg, making it a bit of an uncomfortable night.

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.

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.

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.