I woke later than usual, partly because I lost an hour moving from the Serbian to Romanian time zone yesterday. Consequently after a good breakfast I was not on my way until after 9 am. It would matter little except I had a long day ahead of me, about 33 kilometres with considerable ascent.
Instead of returning to the Dam and have the hassle of being accosted again by a border guard, I avoided the traffic on the busy road that ran beside the Danube and took an an alternative route. This started near the hotel and was waymarked with vertical blue and white stripes. As my first experience of a Romanian trail it was good, regular blue and white stripes and a track easy to follow. It climbed almost 400 metres until it met the E3 which came up a steep path from the Danube, a little north of the Dam. On the way a herd of goats came towards me. The man leading them had his phone to his ear. As I walked through them the goats eyed me suspiciously when they were not busy tugging bits of grass from the trackside or catching up with the others.
The next sections were on tracks that although not waymarked were easy to follow. At times the tracks split, often as vehicles made a detour to avoid a deeply rutted section. There were many pylons spreading the electricity generated at the dam across the area.
The landscape was either mixed woodland, many of deciduous trees in varying stages of maturity, scrubland of bushes, or farmland, usually pasture. Not so different from my walk in nearby Serbia. After much climbing the track levelled out, then later plunged, loosing 360 metres in height over 1.5 kilometres to reach the village of Bahna. I knew I would have to regain at least some of the height so stopped at a shop in the village for refreshments and a short rest. In front of the shop three elderly men were enjoying an argument over a beer, just like Serbia, except they were speaking Romanian (I assume). As I drank my Coke and licked my ice cream one of them tried to argue with me, but as I did not understand anything he said, the debate was one sided.
There was then a roller coaster of a road going up and down, mainly up, before settling down a little among farms. Hay piled up around posts and old wells gave the impression I had entered an earlier time in history. However the section was spoilt my numerous dogs. Some barked at me on principle but a couple were really aggressive, baring their teeth at me, trying to approach me from behind. The worst was a pack of dogs shortly before I reached the Danube again. One looked especially nasty. I collected stones to throw at them when the technique of not looking at them clearly was not working. I also shouted at the ones that charged at me, which halted them temporarily. I noticed their owners, when present, also used the shouting technique.
Finally reaching the busy road beside the Danube, I followed it to the northern suburbs of Orsova, where I could then walk along the quieter promenade beside the water. There were lots of adverts for boat tours to the Iron Gates, most rather faded, but I wondered if I was missing something not going on one.
My pension sits right on the water. I have eaten on the terrace, the dessert of papanasi was particularly good, a local dish made of a fried dough topped with fruit compote and cream. Then I topped up my Romanian Lei from a cash machine (a contactless one so I did not have to worry about it swallowing my card), shopped for a few things and rang my wife. Time for a shower and bed!
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