A second visit to the market at Osijek and on the road again.

A few miles out of Osijek we passed a memorial to 714 Croatian men who had been in a Serbian concentration camp in 1992 during the Serbian/Croatian confict.

Much of this part of the route is on main roads, but we had been recommended at several of the bike shops we visited and by the tourist information yesterday, to take a slightly longer detour on smaller roads.

This took us to a ridge through lots of small villages through pretty wine country.

Here we had some lovely views over the Duna. The villages were pleasant with many of the homes seemingly having a well in the garden.

The thing about a ridge was it was a slog up hill to get to it, however, the upside of this was having a long downhill to rejoin the main road. We reached 26mph without even having to pedal.

We stopped in Vukovar, a town that saw much heavy fighting between Croatian and Serbian forces in the Yugoslavian  civil war that lead to the break up of former Yugoslavia 26 years ago.

Much of the town has been rebuilt, including a new bridge over to Serbia – however we passed many buildings looking damaged and derelict which presumably used to be occupied by Serbians who no longer felt safe living amongst Croatians. The population of the town has almost halved since the beginning of the conflict. Other buildings not being smartly renovated or rebuilt still showed pock marks of bullets and shells.

Pedalling on again, more main roads with lorries hurtling past us at speed, we reached a tiny village (Apotoyac)  where the guide book had said there was accommodation….. but no ‘zimmer’ signs to be seen.

We stopped at the only shop to stock up with water in case we needed to wild camp. Simon went to enquire at the bar. Whilst Diana was waiting outside the shop a friendly lady called at the shop. Diana wanted to ask her if she knew of any rooms, but English would not be much use……

At the bar several calls were made by customers and the barman. Eventually we were directed back up the hill to the home of the mum of the barman.

There we were greeted by Paula, the friendly lady at the shop. A very hospitable lady indeed, speaking Croatian, a little Italian, and a little German. Various languages, gesticulations and pictures all aided communication. She kindly made a phone call to her daughter, who spoke good English and confirmed a few important details.

We had a very good and welcome night’s sleep.

Nerd’s Corner

Osiyek to Opatoyac: 55 miles

Distance travelled so far : 1910 miles

23/5/16

We woke to a dry but cloudy and windy day. Said farewell to our campsite of last night, packed up the tent and made the short journey to Osijek, a city of some 108,000 inhabitants.

Here we changed currency again, into Kuna. About 1 kuna to 10p.

We then visited the post office to send off another box of things to the UK we now feel we can manage without; waterproof leggings, Simon’s shoes (he does still have sandals) and other bits and bobs. This giving more space in our panniers  to carry more food now that we plan to camp more often.

In a colourful market nearby we had a bountiful choice of fruit and veg, much of the produce being sold by the people that had grown or prepared it.

We soon filled the space in our front panniers!

The rest of the day was spent visiting tourist information, bike shops and an internet cafe trying to sort out a longer term solution to the front wheel situation.

We were not surprised to find we could not get a suitable wheel here, it is quite a specialist item. So we have begun liaison with the bike shop  we bought our tandem from. ( J D Tandems  of West Yorkshire ).

We had to work out where we might be in a week or so within the EU and then find an address to have it sent to. All of which will take a bit of time.

So we stayed on in Osijek for the night.

Nerd’s Corner

Kopcevo to Osijek: 12 miles

Distance travelled so far: 1855 miles