Location: still in Tolišnica
Distance covered: 32km
Highest point: 1590m (1125m of climbing)
Today’s goal was the highest peak of the Čemerno range, called Smrdljuč - a slightly unfortunate name, sounds a little “stinky” in Serbian.
It wasn’t having any name-calling from us, though - a good 20km slog to climb 1000m, hence the low mileage today.
The first part was through some pristine forest, pristine except where Srbija Šume have their logging operations. It’s a sort of selective extraction and no doubt they would say it is eco friendly, but why they have to make such a mess of the trails is beyond me. On the right is an example of their “litter”!
On the other hand, it’s the old logging roads that enable us to do this kind of cycling, so you could think of it as an uneasy relationship…
Eventually we struggle out of the woods and out onto the bare ridge of Čemerno and then onto its highest peak, Šmrdljuč, with spectacular view all around.
It’s a good feeling reaching a summit higher than Britain’s highest, Ben Nevis (a measly 1344m) - by bike. And it was all downhill from there.
We had actually planned to cycle straight up to the peak FIRST and THEN along the ridge and back down the other end. As it turned out, the road took us to the other end FIRST, with no trace of the original route, or so it seemed to us.This trip also showed us once again that you cannot rely too heavily on old maps when out biking. The logging trails have changed things quite a bit on the ground and you have to keep your wits about you. It’s always good to have a few waypoints plugged in the GPS if you’ve got it so that if your original plan falls through you still have a rough idea of where you are.
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Posted on July 26th, 2008 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All), Serbia Bike Trek!
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