Our official route out of Belgrade again was questionable but fun nonetheless.

A wooden footbridge supporting hundreds of tourers each year.

Our route took us through tiny villages and endless straight passes.

The end of this day we bumped into a local man riding his bike. After chatting for a while he led us to a campsite nearby.

The campsite was empty at first. When the owner eventually arrived we ordered ourselves a fish and beer. Later that evening we swam in the river and got a great nights sleep.

Serbia started serving us some great views and interesting places to ride through.

This track through the cows led to a ferry crossing.

Approaching the other side.

We then proceeded to cycle towards the Danube Gorge.

Our first glimpse. Romania on the left, Serbia on the right.

We camped just as we entered the Gorge. Underneath a fishing hut.

The following day was by far the most scenic of the entire trip so far! We would stop almost every 10minutes to take a photo and admire the view. Here are a selection of them..

It actually took us 3 days to cycle out of Serbia. It has been a beautiful country to cycle through, we also felt very safe here. Everyone has be kind and friendly.

Our next stop was Bulgaria, for a mere 25 miles.

Navigation to the Romanian border was easy, 1 road.

Access to the bridge to cross by bicycle however was a nightmare. Our maps showed us to a ferry crossing initially, which is no longer running. A security guard told us to use the road. Which then turned into a motorway. So we used offline maps on our phones to navigate a series of run down villages and luckily find the footpath along the bridge.

We found a bank in the first town we came to and took out the cash needed for the next week.

It was now 2pm.. We had cycled in 3 countries and passed into a new time zone (GMT +2).

The journey then continued another 20miles along the river. The villages were very small and there was very little cover for wild camping inbetween. So in the early evening I pulled out a translated paragraph I had printed explaining who I was, what I was doing and could I pitch my tent somewhere.

We asked a family on the outskirts of a little town and they said no, you can stay in our house! Fantastic!

They were very polite and friendly. They also provided us with milk, eggs (fried), bread, tomatoes and cheese all sourced and made from the confines of their small property. Delicious!

Farewell photo.

The scenery has just been field after field. The local resisents cheering us on in every town has been great to experience, although tiring!! The road traffic is 50/50 cars and horse with carts.

The scenery was all very similar and with the prospect of it not changing for another 4 days and having not stopped since Belgrade we decided to take the 100mile detour up to the Capital city Bucharest.
We spent 2 nights here in a hostel. During the rest day we cleaned and maintained our bikes, washed our sweaty clothes and walked around the city to see the sights.

Parliament, 3rd largest building in the world.

A collection of museums and galleries.

The local parks dotted around the city.

My stage 1 finishing line is just around the corner. We hope to be at the Black Sea on Saturday evening!!