Genesis of a trail, Pt. 3: Nobody gives a shit…

I slept with my ear plugs, because of Branko’s snoring and ships on Danube river. Lots of ships, I can tell you that. Mostly touristic, on the way to Black Sea. Pretty noisy 🙂

Suddenly, at 3 o’clock in the morning Branko woke me up. It was raining. After short discussion we’ve decided to pitch tents.

Self standing tent is a great thing 🙂

Next thing I know Branko was waking me up again. It was time to go. Beautiful dawn was breaking over the river. But, walking trail along Danube is pretty short so we had to turn and continue on the dirt road along the railway. At some point dirt road became nonexistent so we continued walking on train tracks. Luckily for us, but not so luckily for residents of Slavonia – train no longer runs here.

Walking on train tracks was tough. CLDT will definitely not go there. I already found new trail and will record it with Igor.

Vast fields of Slavonia

It was nearly noon and temperature went rocket high. It was challenging to walk on shadeless road.

Branko vainly trying to find dirt roads.

To rest in sun is no rest at all

After few hours of road walk we reached dirt road which led us to the village of Bijelo Brdo (white hill – but no hills here). We were waterless and every house seemed like nobody is in it. Ghost village indeed. The heat forced everybody to disappear from yards and streets. Finally, some guy peeped thru window and I showed him an empty bottle. He gave us water so we were able to continue.

After few miles of dirt roads and train tracks we were at village of Sotin. General store was first thing we were looking for. Branko drank liter of milk and yogurt. I don’t drink that type of drinks on trail. I don’t want to run digging cat holes. So, I was drinking beer instead.

Guess what, not even 20 minutes later Branko was running 🙂

Our plan was to camp outside the village. We found field of harvested crops and decided to rest there. It was still hot.

Although trail is flat, walking whole day in the heat is exhausting

Sun was setting when we pitched our tents. After 30 minutes dew started to moist our stuff. I have never seen so much moist and dew. Of course, mosquitoes came in vast numbers. Bloody blood suckers.

Field next to one where we were sleeping was plowed. I knew this field where we were sleeping is next. My only hope was farmer was not going to do it in the middle of the night……

On that day we hiked 28,5 km (17,8 mi). It was tough but our bodies were getting stronger. Unfortunately, residents think we are hobos. Nobody gave a shit about what we were doing, only few of them cared. But, that’s kinda normal. We are first hikers in these areas. When people figure CLDT out they will connect with hikers 🙂

Genesis of a trail goes on…….