Europe by Van Day 16

The campsite by the Danube was delightful. Saw no movement apart from a black squirrel.

We had a wander by the river. We were late leaving as we needed to research the next few days. Our data roaming doesn’t cover Serbia and I would like to see Subotica. Hence we had to look for parking places, routes etc while we had free campsite wifi.

We had a choice of two routes to Timisoara. The most straightforward was the main lorry road to Hungary. The alternative was a longer, twisty, slow one following the Danube for 70 miles of the 155. No contest.

We had the most lovely drive along the river. At some points it narrowed into steep-cliffed gorges then it would open out as wide as a lake. It was very peaceful with minimal traffic. We encountered a huge rockfall which was being cleared away by big diggers. Our phones had messages to say we were in Serbia but we weren’t.

We had a lunch stop in the sun overlooking the river. It was so pretty. At the point where it suddenly widened out there was a castle on the Serbian side guarding the entrance to the gorges.

Continuing on we crossed a wide plain before a few hills then the rest of the journey was on a good straight (if boring across agricultural plains) EU funded road.

After 6 hours on the road we reached our wild camp spot on waste land behind Monastirea Sag-Tiriseni. I expect we’ll be called to prayer by early bells in the morning but that will be helpful. It’s a sunny 30 degrees but there’s a slight breeze. After a cup of tea we tried a walk to the monastery but there were too many loose barking dogs so we retreated to outside the van. I’ll make some aubergine, onion, mushroom and ricotta pasta tonight.

Today we drove 155 miles.

Tomorrow we head to Serbia where can’t get data roaming so I’ll backblip from Croatia when we get there.