As on the last few days, I crossed hilly, high ground cut by deep wooded valleys which I had to descend into then climb out of on the other side. Yesterday it was the valley of the Vratna, today that of the Valja Mare, an unnamed brook and the Blederija. My day began with a walk on a gravel road beside the River Valja Mare. This involved crossing the river at fords a few times on the pebbly river bed. Nothing too deep but I changed into my "hotel" shoes to save my boots and socks getting wet, as they take a long time to dry. As was becoming familiar the terrain consisted of woodland, typically oak, grassland with long grass that seemed little grazed, and scrub land with hawthorn, wild rose and similar bushes. There was one area with an active farm. It had chickens, ploughed land, tractors and a stock of last year's maize. Wild flowers brightened my way; yellow, blue, purple and white. White May blossom released a heady, slightly pissy smell. Tortoises withdrew their heads into their shells when I tried to photograph them, although I came upon one tortoise chasing another at, for a tortoise, considerable speed. When the one in front stopped, the one behind knocked its shell making it continue moving. A male chasing a female I thought. If so, she was not interested.
The climb out of the first valley started well and then the path disappeared. Fortunately I was able to follow the route over rough grass. Then, after a long period of reasonable tracks I had to drop down a steep valley to an unnamed brook and climb the other side. At the top, a little before the valley, the track had disappeared among long grass, flowers and bushes. I was able to follow the route on my GPS, and once under trees, the ground cover suppressed, I found a good track. Rock had been excavated to make the track, so once it was important. Now no-one used it. At the base of the valley the vegetation was dense and I had to push through brambles to get to a path up the other side. The Serbian E4 certainly needs mental fortitude to keep going despite these difficulties. The final descent, on a track, deeply eroded by water, was to the Blederija waterfall. A pretty drop of water which deposits tufa (calcium carbonate) lower down. It was spoilt by all the rubbish at the picnic tables at the bottom. Two men were there who asked me to take their photo with falls in the background, in return they took mine.
I made good time on the road from the waterfalls to Brza Palanka, a village on the banks of the Danube, although the aggressive barking of the many dogs at settlements I passed was pissing me off. Why do people need so many noisy dogs? Why do they not like me? At Brza Palanka I stopped at a restaurant I knew for an early tea. Fish Chowder and Shopsa Salad with bread, followed by coffee and later a dessert of chocolate from a petrol station. There was a campsite by the restaurant but the toilets had bad reviews and I wanted to complete a few more kilometres so that I had a sensible distance to cover tomorrow. The E4 route continued on the banks of the Danube, and after walking along the embankment for a few miles I picked a spot to camp. Clearly used for fishing like all the obvious camping spots, so I am hoping no-one wants to do any night fishing here tonight.
As I write this a nightingale is serenading me, there is a cuckoo in the distance and I have disturbed a few squawking pheasants today. Skylarks sang in the sky overhead earlier in the day.
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