Sometimes it’s just got to be spontaneous. Straja was over from Germany (Straja being the co-star of our trip to Montenegro last summer), we had planned on some kind of trip when he came, but time was short, Mrs. D. and myself have a wee little mountain-biker on the way and there won’t be any gallivanting about the hills and dales for a little while, so sometimes it has to be short and sweet - or should that be steep?

We headed down to Ljig, a small town about an hour south of Belgrade, where the first proper hills really begin and pushed up a really steep hill to a spot I had found on Google Earth that I thought would be nice for camping. Just as a sidenote - things are not always as they seem on Google Earth!

We only really had one full day for riding, so we made it count, with only around 35km covered, but plenty of consultation with the maps along the way, a fair few wrong turns, and a fair bit of pushing uphill as things just got a bit steep. The area is maybe a little too steep for comfortable mountain biking, I am going to have to improve my topo map-reading skills!

This trip was proof you CAN get a mountain-biking trip together pretty quickly - it’s handy to have a basic inventory so you can pack really quickly, grab a tent and sleeping bag, get in the car (or load the bike up in a bus as I did) and away you go! No need to wait for the “perfect opportunity”! Check out the pics from this trip.

Reading a recent entry in Rob’s blog (many times our companion, indeed the ringleader, on these trips), I was also reminded once more of how easy it is to camp in Serbia. We thought we’d slipped up the hill and into a cow field (entering through the gate and then skipping a barbed-wire fence) and that no-one had seen us (not that we thought they would mind), set up camp, got the fire going, and nobody bothered us for the two days we were there. It was only on the way down that we met a local who said, “Enjoying our parts? That’s our field you were camping in, by the way!” However, this was said merely by way of conversation, not in the manner of an irate landowner - people have no problem with you camping on their land, even less so if you clear up after yourself. The fence and gate are just there to keep the animals in place, not the camping bikers out! Try doing THAT in the UK!

So that little trip will probably round off this summer’s mountain-biking trips, though there are still a couple of Open cup races on the calendar in October to finish off the season (more about that in a later post). Just as well, my bike is ready for a serious refit…

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Posted on September 28th, 2009 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All)