Big news event of the day is that both Bob and Mark have now cycled more than 2,000 miles each. However, whilst Mark called it a day late afternoon in the Romanian town of Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Bob has pushed on to Calafat - where on the opposite side of the Danube lies Bulgaria, their penultimate country before Turkey.
Romanian Gnomes for sale in Calafat
As you can gather, Mark survived his night at the B&B and wasn't fed to the family pig! Shame on him for fearing the worst. Nevertheless, his ten past seven departure marked the earliest of the tour as yet for himself. After cycling through more than a dozen road tunnels, time for a 9am coffee in the bustling market town of Donji Milanovac, before heading north-west through the Danube Gorge. Here, the cliffs rise to almost 600 metres and at one point the Danube is only 150 metres wide and 82 metres deep - the deepest of any river in the world.
Danube Gorge at its narrowest
And as the road continues to rise, across the Danube in Romania can be seen the rock carving of Decabulus Rex - King of Dacia in the first century AD.
Rock carving of Decabulus Rex
Apart from the roadside rubbish (more so than in any other country witnessed), the biggest issue for cyclists in Serbia is the standard of driving - especially by White Van Men. This might be laughable, except for the number of roadside shrines. Almost all of these relate to young men who died in their 20's and are most often located at hazardous points along the road. Their photos are often included and in one instance, against the backdrop of his sports car - almost certainly the instrument of his death. It's all extremely sad and tragic.
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