No sooner had I told you about the opening of a section of the Danube cycle route in Serbia than we go out and completely ignore it!

I have not actually ridden the route as it is now “officially” marked out, with a collection of proper signposts running through Serbia, and I have not got hold of the maps yet. But one thing immediately suprised me at the opening of the route, namely that in Novi Sad the signposts take you across the river to the southern bank of the Danube and down the “old road” to Belgrade, which at certain points is quite some way from the Danube and involves riding along a very treacherous, narrow route, with way too many cars and lorries. It goes something like this:

(click for a bigger pic - note, this is NOT an accurate representation of the route! It’s just to give you the general idea!)

I am sure there are good reasons why they took the route this way. While the choice of the south bank isn’t clear to me, I do realise that there aren’t rideable paths all the way along that side, and you have to take the main road basically. Also, you get to see the historic town of Sremski Karlovci, which is certainly a plus point. However, to me, the idea of cycling along the Danube would still be to actually SEE the river whilst doing so!

The alternative

So when a little group of us needed to be in Opovo in July, a small town 20 kilometres outside Belgrade, on the north bank of the Danube, for a summer camp for high-schoolers, the choice of route (and mode of transport) was obvious!

Here is a Google Earth file showing the route we took from Novi Sad to Opovo (from whence you could continue fairly easily to Belgrade, as explained later). There are programs around to convert this file to your brand of GPS if needs be, though I must of course disclaim any responsibility for what you do with the information! Suffice to say we travelled this route and stayed alive! Even without a GPS, all you have to do is try to stay close to the Danube, anyway!

About the Novi Sad - Opovo route (about 80km)

A few points about the route:

- take plenty of water with you, there are not a LOT of places to buy any, it’s quite wild.

- as you exit Novi Sad, you will find yourself crossing the Danube-Tisa canal, and wending your way through an industrial zone, necessary in order to avoid the oil refinery.

- after a while you will emerge from a small settlement known as Shanghai (I kid you not) and onto the Danube embankment. To your right IS the Danube, but there is a long stretch of marshy land separating you from it to begin with. Also, as you progress further along, the riverside is very overgrown and you still may not see very much of the river, but the natural surroundings are very pleasant (a lot more so than the Novi Sad-Belgrade “old” highway, I assure you!), with plenty of little ponds and wildlife, with very few people other than the odd fisherman.

- the route as a whole is mostly not tarmacked and so is not suited to road bikes really. I don’t know much about trekking bikes, but I am guessing a good bike will handle this terrain OK. Some of the time it will be more comfortable to get down off the embankment and ride along the more smoothly-packed trail alongside it, which is used more by vehicles (though you probably won’t see many). In fact, the embankment, especially after Titel, can get really quite rough, so there is a price to pay for taking the scenic route.

- at one point I did compromise, and the route leaves the Danube for a little while at Gardinovci in order to cross the E75 motorway. I am not sure what happens if you carry along the Danube, but I had a feeling it gets a little marshy and tricky in places. That’s one I still have to investigate. Theoretically it will take you under the E75 highway at the Beška crossing, but this seems to be all marshland, looking from the road.

- this one is important! Once you have come out onto the main highway for the second time, near the place called Čenta, there really isn’t much point in following the GPS route anymore because it is a VERY rough and wild route round to Opovo, extremely uncomfortable, even on a mountain bike (take my word for it!) Probably this is a good time to resign yourself to the last stretch to Belgrade (about 25km) by road. This road has been worked on lately (unlike the BG-NS road) and is nice and smooth, and will take you into Belgrade via the so-called Pančevo Bridge.

Well, I hope some of this info will help you plan a cycling trip through Serbia. Like I said, you can always play it safe and take the “official” route the other side of the Danube, but I have described a tried and tested alternative that I hope some brave souls will attempt! I will be happy to help out anyone who wants to try it. Might even join you

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Posted on August 28th, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All), Serbia GPS info