DAY 8: SATURDAY 6 AUGUST 2012
Camping Costs: Hotel/Pension Restoran Zmajevac €27 – 1 night
We decided to head off into Serbia today but stop in a town called Ilok to see a castle and war memorial. First we stopped for coffee which was very nice.
Afterwards we headed off to Ilok. The town holds a memorial for the 1991 war. We first stopped at the Ovĉara Memorial which is the site of a mass grave. The towns people of Vukovar were massacred by the Serbs during the invasion. 200 people fled and hid in the local hospital. The Serb army found them and mass murdered them, burying them in a mass grave.
Ovĉara is a memorial on the sight where they were found. The floor is set with with all the bullets found in the grave. A very humbling experience.
From there we stopped at a vineyard, as Ilok is a wine region and had lunch. The wine was Traminac and was VERY nice, so we bought some. From here we headed to the Serbian border, where we waited to get Green Card Insurance. Here we waited, in the steaming sun, for 40 min or more. The insurance turned out to be €110 for 1 month. When the man finally returned with our insurance, we started our adventure into Serbia. We looked for road signs to Fruŝka Gora, but didn’t see any till we got into the industrial area of Novi Sad.
Serbia looks very different to the other countries we have been in so far. A lot more rural even in the city. We stopped for money and to try use the GPS to help navigate us. Serbia uses a cryillic alphabet, it makes reading road signs etc. a lot harder. We found ourselves at the top of the road turning in the Fruŝka Gora park, but not having seen any signs for camping. We decided to carry on looking. We saw some people pitched on the side of the road in a caravan, but we were a little nervous of free camping. We managed to find a sign that said “sobe”, meaning rooms, and headed in that direction. We found a restaurant that also had rooms above it. The price was €27 for all of us, (Cassie stayed free), including breakfast. We decided to stay. We got out the maps and guide books and planned for where to go next. We decided to go and see the monasteries in the park and then head for another national park where they have a little railway you can go on. Mokra Gora, the line used to run all the way to Sarajevo.
Dan’s a windsurfing, adventure-seeking nomad with a passion for exploring the globe overland and an Engineer. Having grown up in the Middle East, he brings a unique perspective to Getting Lost Again, sharing his love for discovering hidden gems and embracing the unexpected. When he’s not on the road, he finds inspiration in windsurfing and other creative pursuits – and is equally at home under a vehicle solving problems as he is exploring a new place.