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20. – 25.05.2012 Belgrade - Pozarevac 124 km
Olli:
Before we left Belgrade Milica was so nice to quickly repair Sonja's cycling shorts with her sewing machine. We will miss her and Aleksandar very much because we felt really comfortable with them. As we were on our way out of Belgrade we met cyclist Joachim from Stuttgart who was traveling in the same direction. We quickly realized that we are on the same wavelength and spontaneously decided to ride together for a while. In the evening we camped behind a garbage dump in the bushes, where we were almost eaten by mosquitoes, and we learned that cooking pasta with too little water results in a gooey lump of starch. I was particularly amused that Joachim, when we wanted to have a shower (we both try to wash ourselves every night), wanted to wait politely in the tent while it was Sonja's turn.
The next day we joined forces against the nasty headwind, while trucks kept oupacing us on the busy road, which both was very stressful for body and nerves. While cycling I suddenly realized that my rim must be bent which blocked my brakes and I tried in vain to fix this problem during the lunch break. We finally decided in the late afternoon to meet with the helpful cyclist Ivan, whom we had met in Belgrade, and who had invited us to visit him to camp in his garden. We hoped he might introduce us to a good bike mechanic who could fix the problem. While searching for his home in Pozarevac we were helped by two very friendly policemen which painted Sonja a map because they couldn't speak English. Unfortunately, Ivan wasn't at home but his wife Lilia and son Martin warmly received us and Martin went with us this evening to his buddy Matea, who should inspect my bent rim. He quickly found the source of my problem: We were pretty shocked when it turned out that the rim wasn't just bent but fractured and no one could explain the reason for this since the rim was actually almost new. After a few phone calls, in search of a replacement, Matea found a suitable one, which should be sent within 2 days. The day finally ended with rain, just when we wanted to start eating and in the end Sonja had to free me from a tick. What a great day!
So we were stuck in Pozarevac and Joachim also stayed with us voluntarily because it was raining cats and dogs the next day. The day after that it rained as well but Joachim finally left us due to time pressure. Back in the workshop, with high hopes that the new rim has arrived, it unfortunately turned out that it didn't fit and what's more, Matea had found the cause of the fracture: I had put too much pressure into the tires just paying attention to the limit of the tires without knowing that I highly exceeded the allowed maximum of the rims. Due to this too high pressure plus the full weight of luggage plus the heat the rim finally collapsed. It is perhaps understandable that our mood hit rock bottom in that moment.
The next evening waiting was at an end as, to our great joy, we were brought a brand new rim from Belgrade. On the fourth day after arriving here we could go on at last full of new energy and zest for action. Just in time for our departure it even had stopped raining. But because of this incident we had to slightly adjust our itinerary however. In order to get a free of charge re-centering for our tires, which is part of the service, we were referred to a branch of the bicycle workshop (Planet Bike Belgrade) in Nis, which unfortunately is 180 km away from the Danube and our planned route. But we're flexible. Let's go to Nis!
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