Day 27: Cvijetino Brdo to Crkveni Toci, 286 km

Day 27 - Cvijetino Brdo to Crkveni Toci, 286 km

First thing this morning.  Cold.

Woke up in paradise (chilly, mind) and spent first hour or two rolling through endless meadow. Paid the price eventually in switchbacks on a horrible craggy descent to the River Mtrvica.

Morning's riding in Montenegrin Highlands

More from Montenegro this morning

Beautiful, remote farms. High-five from shepherd. 

Not seen windmills since Northern France.  Flashbacks!

Meadows as far as the eye can see

After a woody pass by a monastery to reach the Tara river again (and a huge Chinese road/tunnel project), I cut north on boring roads to reach the Serbian border. Soon back off-road after that.

I didn't fancy taking my chances at a minor road crossing, so went through the Lim gorge (Kumanička Klisura). Threaded with memorials to those who drove over the edge. Railway opposite an engineering feat.

Serbia! Dobrodoshli.

And now Serbia. Immediately greener, lusher, with more farming.

Route went to play in some wood blocks, some bits very deeply rutted. Even got muddy.

Fortunately, I had plenty of food from yesterday, so only needed water before finding somewhere to stop for the night. First time I've used a spring rather than buying bottles. They're plentiful, and marked on my gps mapping.

Campsite tonight

All set up

I gave OpenStreetMaps data a pass yesterday for missing some minor tracks. But today there were whole tarmac roads absent as well. Still easy enough to follow the TET GPX line, but harder to estimate what's coming ahead.

Oh, if you've been thinking "those panniers look shiny and new" (not likely), that's because they are! Kriega really screwed the nut and delivered a completely new set to Sarajevo, plus all the gubbins I needed. I considered just swapping the straps but immediately understood why Kriega thought it best not to bother. Great customer service. And no delivery hassle either.

Turns out the old ones (and a large batch in the store-room) had all been threaded incorrectly at the factory. Fixing it requires cutting and re-stitching the straps.  This is what originally happened: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/845949982226814/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Transeurotrail.org/permalink/856325087855970/

NB: Functionality disabled to prevent extracting KML. If you want to follow the route, get the latest data from TransEuroTrail.org