September 26, 2017
Finding Your Inner MacGyver: Day 50 - Novi Sad to Vukovar
Novi Sad turned out to be a pretty nice town, and we're pretty sure we would have enjoyed Belgrade too. However that will have to wait for another time.
As we beat our retreat back to Vukavor this morning, it was sunny and mostly clear. We could see rolling hills on the west side of the Danube and they looked beautiful. To the south and east it was still flat and boring. We're happy with our choice, in a week we'll be on the Adriatic and then we will have the Alps.
Today however was just yesterday in reverse except it was warm and sunny, and we found a route that added about 12 km but avoided the nasty busy highway stretch we endured yesterday.
About the only excitement we had today was when the one and only nut on K's bike came loose, fell off and was lost. This nut was on the bolt that holds the front light and the fender hanger. It's a simple nut for a size 5 hex bolt. Pretty standard stuff for bikes. However, in my repair kit 'bag of bolts' I didn't have a replacement. There is only 1 on the bike so why would I even think about carrying a spare? Well, for exactly the situation we had today. We've been on a lot of rough track the last week and the bikes are getting rattled pretty good. Good enough to rattle this nut loose (don't ask why there wasn't any lock-tite on it). Anyway we managed to MacGyver a fix with a few zip ties and some tape.
We were about 10 km from the Croatian border and miraculously, within 500m of going though passport control we found a hardware store in Ilok. The very nice owner gave me a few of the required nuts and a few minutes later K's bike was properly fixed. Excitement for the day done.
We checked in to a different pension in Vukovar (the one Sunday was good but we want to spread the love!), strolled into town and had our post ride beer at a riverside cafe, and then had a light dinner at the pension ( very good).
We' ve got a plan roughed out for the next few days.... Zagreb by Friday , and maybe a day off there to explore, then on to the Adriatic coast to Rijeka where we might spend a few days by the sea before heading north into the Alps.
Our excitement for tomorrow will be trying to get our phones working. We bought a "2 month" pre paid card from O2 in Germany that we were told would just "roll over" any unused data after 28 days into the second 28 day period. Well today was day 28 and both our phones rolled over, and died.
I'm sure phone companies are one of the prime causes of people 'going postal' and committing henious acts.
That's all for today!
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Song of the day
Staying Alive by the Bee Gees .... but not their version ... the Springsteen version live in Brisbane
I had an email exchange with our friend Stephen W tonight and triggered a memory where he told us about this great Springsteen cover. We were changing plans because the ride was getting pretty boring, and somewhat dangerous ... and we wanted to Stay Alive!
Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 3,569 km (2,216 miles)
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