Storks are back!!! Wonderful Zasavica!

Storks are back! What a great pleasure to spot them immediately after our arrival in Zasavica Nature Reserve, a short taxi ride South of Sremski Mitrovica! We had been missing them all winter, now they are busy restoring their nests, while food noisily sits in the swamps just below: a chorus of a million frogs!

The Zasavica nature reserve is run by the Municipality of Sremski Mitrovica, and among else they specialize on old breeds of farm animals! Looking at this black big (Gulash made of it is superb) we had not yet any idea that females are very defensive, and Mama had to fence off two attacks of a mother during our later to follow hike, with ET bravely standing behind kicking her leg!

We soon spotted the well sign posted hike along the open wide plane, grazed by old breeds of donkeys, long horned cows, Balkan horses and above said pigs! Taking about 2h with ET, we ended up in Zasavica village 1, where we were picked up by our trusted taxi driver again! Very, very nice hike!

 However, before venturing out we had to have a very good lunch in the Etno Kuja!

 Farewell from Sremski Mitroviza on a Swing next to the beautiful new pedestrian bridge accross Sava, and once more successful in hunting...

 ...another great map in our bag!

 After having caught the last bust from Sremski Mitrovica to Beograd for the day at 19.15, I cosy dinner in front of the fire was more than deserved for little strong leg owners!

Wonderful Closure of the Skiing Season

Well, it is hard work to reach...five hours in the bus! But decided as the ladies were, we reached on Easter Friday Kopaonik, and did not regret it all: snow still laid meters high, it was soft but not wet, the weather misty and windy on many occasions (particularly unpleasant on the flying lifts as ET called them) but we were spared a single drop of rain! Staying in a little apartment in the Konaci complex was a great choice (thank you Ana!), too!

Saturday morning, after a almost two hour power break (!) sun appeared and we made the maximum out of it! Most pists run through very lovely Sapin forests...

...and the black run from the highest point is really great, but "bubiliecht" as ET said. Other grown ups however looked at me with great reproach, ET was the only kid on that black run!

A fantastic discovery was however the "wolf's hut", a big fire place in the middle, great, great food, a generous landlord, skins to keep us warm - in combination with the gentle slopes a real treat! There are more of these small places along the pistes, but this one remained our clear favorite!

Weather turned really bad on Sunday, so ET learned to use the Tellerlift, and run it from bottom to top and bottom again all on her own!

A well deserved maize cob with a view from our apartaman window - we will return, hopefully with Papa!

Surrounding and climbing Mount Kosmaj along the Zwärgli-Trail

In this country "of buses to everywhere at any time" we made it to Kosmaj, 60km South of Beograd, similarly looking to Avala, but - on a misty Saturday morning - obviously all to ourselves!

We picked up a trail freshly signposted at this little monument in the very North of Kosmaj - you reach it be following the graveled road along the antennas to the North of the road's highest crossing point, and then following down the hiking track slighly to the East for a couple of 100m. From there it is well signposted with a white dot and a red roof (also looking like a Gnome or Zwärgli head) - the indicated Etno Kuja, where Nadia and myself wanted to drink coffee, we however never reached! Otherwise the round trip links all the sights of Kosmaj into a approximately 1.5 to 2h easy hike. 

The monument is huge, indeed, and to honour partisans, as on every other mountain peak surrounding Beograd...you reach it towards the end of the trail.

After paying a visit to the Trebinje Monastery at the foot of Kosmaj about half way of the trail...

 ...we fried sausages to warm us up! They turned out almost Swiss style and were delicious!

 There are several maps posted along the trail, but their information value is rudimentary!

Spring arriving! Exploring the Danube's Iron Gate

Spring weather has been announced, temperatures up to 18 degrees, but as rain has been plenty recently, and all the field tracks are muddy, we left the bikes at home and set off with a rental car and hiking boots, towards the East of the country, the ancient Roman settlement of Vinimacium 15km North of Pozarevac. Coal mining is the big, big thing there, and it is also thanks to all that digging, that a lot of Roman settlements have been excavated, and recently even the scelettons of Mammuths!

 Despite our insistence that we had come extra to see the Mammoth, all we got was this huge poster of the excavation process, a glimpse of the white tent right in the coal mine sitting, and a promise that in six months time it will be exhibited to visitors...in shallah!

 At the guardian's hut wall...

For a picknick lunch we then moved to the Ram castle right at the Danube from where it turns South and starts to form the border between Serbia and Romania. A ferry picked up cars and passengers across the Danube to the Voivodina.

 The Danube cylce path follows this beautiful coastline! Yet to be done!

 On the lookout for a coffee on the Danube with a view to Romania, we stopped at this simple place in Pozezene, and got offered fish soup (great taste!), smoked fish (Zander) and juice on the house on an extra table outside! Amazing hospitality, be a host who on top of this even spoke fluently German!

By apero time we reached Golubac fortress, and let the sun settle in the Danube, soaking the medieval construction through which the main road leads (including two tunnels with require cm-work by the truck drivers to get through) into golden light...we ended up under umbrellas as it started to rain as well, quite romantic!

The next morning, after having spent the night in the Lepinski Vir Hotel in Donji Milanovac together with 100s of women and slightly less men celebrating women's day, we set off to the village of Miroc, which according to a German guidebook (!) was a good starting point for hikes with a view on the Iron gate, the two most narrow points where the Danube passes in between rocks. Well, it was hard to find any track, we asked half the village and let ourselves accompany by two youngsters who knew about a trail...until we followed our own instincts and followed this signpost which we had discovered on the way to Miloc! 

We were indeed rewarded, the Gradashnica caves are impressive, and completely equipped with a table, a fire place, fire wood and a little stream leaving the pittoresque place!

Quite some discoveries on our way back - lianes to hang on as thick as a woman's arm, and...

...Feuersalamander! We were thrilled by the appearance of these beautifully coloured animals!

For the night we found a great host couple in Malo Golubinje (kleine Taube) with Slavo and Ljubiza. Even though night was about to fall, they served us coffee down on their Danube river bank BBQ place and we could watch their other clients return from fishing, with quite a catch of more Zander.

Two hours later we were served a delicious meal of chicken, home made mashed potato, fresh bread, cheese and salads, including a good bottle of King Lazarevac wine and - well wrapped in blankets - decided to make this our first al fresco dinner of the 2013 season!

The next morning we set off along these two signposts, with a little unclear ideas on what was going to expect us along the way, but after the discovery of the cave the day before, we had developed quite some trust in these singposts, and the little red and white signs - even though not loosing track of them at times is more than challenging, when grown over by moss or removed on a felt tree these signs all of a sudden in the middle of rather thick forest disappear! Out sense of orienteering came handy more than once!

On the way up direction Shtrbaz, the range of summits overlooking the Iron gate, we came across farmers preparing wood coal in simple kerns...

...this little village, where we got invited by a mother and daughter couple for coffee, after the daughter had shown us around two other large caves, and then directed us further on the right track to Shtrbaz.

A still very Jugoslav spring provided us with cool water, while temperatures rose, and we felt how spring was not too far away any longer.

Up at this semi abandonned farm after Ella Tili has done some 3 hours of good and all uphill hiking, situated just under the summit of Shtrabaz, we had a wonderful pick nick including real Emmental cheese (great thanks to Kathryn!!!) and then decided to check out the trail leading down towards the Danube in a different direction than the one we had come up, and we should be rewarded for that choice of Andy's!

Along marvellous trails and abandonned farms we made it down towards the Iron gate, the two most narrow openings between rock faces where the Danube squeezes itsself through!

While Mama and Papa were most delighted by the views, ET enjoyed a wide range of spring flowers, including orchids along our path, and lots of very fresh bright green appearing.

This wonderful roundtrip ended at a well down on the main road, where ET and Mama waited for Papa to fetch the car and pick us up again. How lucky we were to have found this very exclusive hike without any map, only a little reki the day before, and mostly following our instincts! To be redone, including Shtrbaz summit!

Farewell from Slavo and Ljibuza - their place (the two houses above in the centre with a great view on the Danube) comes highly recommended!
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