We left our camp stop in Sofia, Bulgaria on Saturday (March 30th) morning around 09.30 having emptied various tanks and filled with water. We also filled up with diesel as it seemed to be quite cheap in Sofia at around equivalent of €1.35 a litre and we weren’t sure what the price would be in Serbia. (As it turned out, the price for diesel seemed to be fixed at 203RSD in Serbia, which is about €1.64 so good call by us!) It was going to be another hot day but at least we have air con in the cab. We took the motorway to the border crossing at Calotina and waited in line. Even for a Saturday morning, the queue of trucks went on for 4km. It took us about an hour to get through and they even checked that we had bought a vignette (one off payment instead of individual tolls) before our passports were stamped to leave Bulgaria and then entered Serbia. We had downloaded an e-Sim for Serbia from Airalo but couldn’t activate it until we were actually in the country. Touch of relief that it all worked very smoothly and we could have connectivity whilst there. Before we left the U.K. we had purchased International Driving Permits as Serbia supposedly requires it but no one asked us to produce it. Perhaps they would have if there had been an accident. Who knows?

According to various government websites (UK and Serbia), we needed to register with the police within 24 hours of entering the country. Usually, if you are staying in a hotel they will do it for you but we had no idea where we were going to stay and certainly not in one place for the duration of our visit. So we drove to Niš as there was a large police station there and also various sights we wanted to visit. We found somewhere to park and hoped we had understood the parking sign correctly!

We walked quickly round to the police station and presented ourselves. After much scratching of heads, the policeman we saw decided that we didn’t have to register with them but that it would be much better to register via a campsite as our travels crossed a number of jurisdictions. He also commented that within 48 hours of arriving is also fine. So, having wasted an hour or so, we went back to Dora (hoping we hadn’t got a ticket) and moved onto our sightseeing of the city. We had gained an hour as Serbia is only one hour ahead of UK and not two hours like Greece and Bulgaria. Niš is the third largest city in Serbia and was a bit disappointing as it was described as a lively city of curious contrasts where Roma horse drawn carriages trot alongside posh cocktails. We saw the carriages but no sign of sophistication. First stop in the Fraser Wall sightseeing tour was the Skull Tower where 58 skulls remain of the 800 decapitated and scalped Serbs who had fought the Ottomans in1809 as part of the First Serbian Uprising. Serbia had been part of the Ottoman Empire since 1459. The Ottomans then embedded the skulls into the tower walls in the city. It was supposed to serve as a warning to other Serbs but all it did was to act as a symbol of insurrection.

Next up was the Roman Palace of Mediana. This was built by Constantine the Great in the 4th century. Constantine was born in Niš and is famous for his conversion to Christianity and building the great city of Constantinople. There were 1,000 square metres of very fine mosaics that had been excavated.

All of the museums were closing at 15.00 and we were fast running out of time so we next drove to the Red Cross Concentration Camp on the outskirts of the city. We got there at 14.15 so we just had enough time to quickly digest the exhibits. In 1941 it housed mainly communists, Roma and Jews. Many of them were transported to forced labour camps in Germany and Norway although the conditions were very harsh in Niš with summary executions on a twice weekly basis. In February 1941 there was a breakout of over 100 prisoners which resulted in some 800 of those remaining being executed shortly afterwards in reprisals. It was a somber and moving account of what happened to the prisoners.

We then decided to make our way towards the Tara National Park which is in the NW corner of the country right next to the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was a long drive only part of which was motorway and the rest more like A or B roads. It was already dusk when we arrived at the first of our potential park ups but although it was set in a gorgeous gorge it was basically a car park next to a busy main road. We couldn’t find the second potential stop in the dark so we continued onto a campsite we had contacted. There would be someone there until 21.00 so all good. The roads got smaller and we climbed higher and higher. At last we saw a camping site sign. With a huge sigh of relief we had arrived. Strangely though it seemed to be more of a farm than a campsite and there was no one to greet us. The owners came out and it turns out we had set the sat nav to the wrong campsite! However, this was a delightful, family run place with goats, donkeys and even peacocks. They couldn’t have been more welcoming with homemade plum brandy, coffee and cake. A wonderful find although they also told us that as we were only staying one night it wasn’t worth registering us with the police either! (P4N#67972)

After a leisurely morning we said goodbye to the lovely family around 11.20 to continue onto the National Park. Just outside Užice we saw a monument from the side of the road that was in commemoration of a battle in WWII where Serbian partisans fought and lost against the Nazis. We also stopped at Perućac where the river forms the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina to see some lovely waterfalls.

We then followed the sat nav to try to get to the Banjska Stena view point in the National Park. The road took us along the Perućac lake and up into the mountains. The road became a track and then not even that. We turned round and retraced our route and followed the signs (not easy in Cyrillic) up to the view point parking spot (P4N#287891). After a short stroll we were rewarded with wonderful views. It was a shame that the day was so hazy and it would have been glorious on a sunny day with blue skies. Although the National Park has snakes and brown bears we only saw one snake briefly and no real bears.

We then set off, in daylight for a change, to our overnight stop by the Zaovine Lake in the park. It was a gorgeous setting with only a couple of stray dogs and a cat for company. Wonderful. (P4N#132944))

On Monday morning, April 1st, we left our spot before 0900 to go round to another part of the lake for breakfast but whilst it was a nice view, the supposed beach was non existent! After we had eaten we continued out of the park, which took at least an hour and a half to make our way to Belgrade or Beograd as Serbians call it. We passed back through the Mokra canyon where we didn’t stop on Saturday evening and even found the missing park up which was right next to a small monastery and chapel. The road to it was very narrow with over hanging rocks and small tunnels so we were very glad we didn’t try it in the dark. The chapel had some glorious frescoes.

We stopped in the canyon for lunch where we had geese for company (very strange in a car park by the main road) before joining the motorway up to Beograd.

Miles driven since last post: 238

Miles driven on this trip: 2,809

Tolls: €21