(Temporary Backup) Day 28 - Sombor to Novi Sad- 108.4 kms

24 Jun

It all started last night after dinner......

We had a delightful dinner in the centre of Sombor where there were big festivities to celbythe summer solstice. The towns folk were in a festive mood and there was a fish cooking contest well underway with pots of stewed fish being heated to the boil on open fires under each pot. There were over 200 of these being fired up as we walked around the square. Just imagine this being done in Fed Square in Melbourne!

We had a good meal which included a beer for me... my first drop of alcohol in 9 days!!!

Then it started raining.... and I mean raining and all we could do was make our way back to our accommodation which was about 1.5 kms away and get soaking wet.

After reaching the accommodation we wrung ourselves out and hopped in to bed hoping the clouds would clear in the morning and our clothes would dry

Awake again at 5.30 am, we packed our things and after a few words with the owner of the house and his daughter we were on our way. The weather seemed ok so we stopped in at a bakery in Sambor to get some breakfast before taking to the road

At this stage the clouds were starting to build in the direction we were heading.... then about 10 kms from the start it began to pour down with thunder and lightning to boot.

We donned our rain jackets and soldiered on stopping occasionally to see what the weather was doing... alas we were in it for the longer haul.

Associated with this were the state of some of the roads... yes the Serbian roads are really something...

Then just before the 50 km mark we hit a patch of about 3 kms of unmade roads... the surface was basically dirt with the consistency of sand and when I hit this my wheels locked up clogged with this mud and I fell off the bike.

The only eaywe could get through this was to walk the bikes.... not on the roads but on the side in the grass to make sure the wheels turned .... the road ( or what purported to be a road) was a muddy mess playing havoc with the bikes....every now and then we had to stop and clear the wheels from mud.... all very yuck and somewhat challenging stuff. As I said this continued for 3 kms and when we finally reached the safety of a sealed road we had to find a deep puddy try and clean our bikes. Luckily the rain had stopped but the other big issue was the mozzies... they were everywhere and if you stopped you would be attacked unmercifully

Having passed this test we felt we nuts get to our destination ASAP and I mean really ASAP!!! We were wet through and muddy beyond belief

To try to continue the bike cleaning process we adopted a strategy of riding through puddles which seemed to work.

The remain 50 odd kms weya bit of a blurr to us both as we simply wanted to get somewhere we we could shower and clean ourselves and the bikes

On the way in to Novi Sad we saw a car wash and used the high pressure hose to clean our bikes much to the amusement of some onlookers who were cleaning their cars

We arrived at our accommodation at about 2.00pm and were able to have a shower and clean some of our bike bags, shoes and the like

Generally having a good wash after a challenging day makes a big difference.... and it certainly happened today

Early morning with our hosts at Sambor.... note the sun is shining!!