Bromley to Bucharest: Day 31: Belgrade to Bozovici, 305 km

Day 31 - Belgrade to Bozovici, 305 km

Romania! Journey is in its last phase now. Heading to Bucharest. Going to see how far along the TET route I can get before running out of time and dropping off the Carpathians and blitzing to the capital.
Straightforward leaving Belgrade. Changed tyre at Mitas distributors. Then 80km road blast to rejoin route at Kovin.

Delibato Sands were great. It took me a while to re-learn to ride in the soft stuff, but I soon had my weight back, lightest touch on the bars, letting the bike pick it's own line, and keeping on the power. The full lap is about 90km and all worth doing - the deepest, softest fun stuff is near the top!

Then over the border and an immediate change. Instant trails, and really good fun. Soon into the hills. Now in a field south of Bosovici. There's a giant illuminated white cross staring across from the hill opposite.

Remarkably flat. Pin straight roads.

Apparently it's a prehistoric desert and the largest area of sand in Europe.

Sand! It got deeper too.

Even deeper.

This was a great section - steep down and back up the other side. See my fishtail tyre marks!

Danube

Romania! It turns out that, despite what everyone seems to be saying, it's quite straightforward rejoining the EU after you've left...

This is just a few hundred metres from the border. Quickly covered the remaining flat stuff to those hills in the distance.

OSM mapping took another step down in accuracy. Not only are there trails missing, but it's absolutely pot luck what the road is marked as on the map versus reality. This immaculate tarmac is "unpaved road", leading directly off a "highway" which was bone-jarring dirt!

Slight admin snafu. No Romanian Lei, and no ATM for a good 50km. I didn't stock up on supplies in Serbia, and they might not have let me through anyway with a carrier bag of food (they didn't exactly nod me through as it was!). Fortunately I found water in a village and tucked into some back-up rations. I'm sure if I got desperate someone would have helped, and I had euros too.