Monday 6th Setember mileage 8678 Oravita Romania

Good nights sleep in hotel, and had a breakfast of omlette which I was assuming would be just a plain omlette, but came with cheese and ham.  Still troubled by diarrhoea so back to hotel room for a while !!

Reset tomtom for Belgrade in Serbia and set off.  
As I came into the town of Dobretta-Turno-Severin there were loads of old chemical works, and adjacent more modern working ones, and also a huge power station. 

The Chemical works were called Romag Prod and the power station Romag Termo.  I couldn't see any huge piles of coal so am assuming it was an oil powered station (because there was emmissions from the huge chimney), but couldn't see any railtrucks to deliver oil etc. 

What was interesting was that there was a huge pipe connecting the power station to the town which again I assume was to provide space heating in the masses of appartment blocks with the waste heat. I am not sure that the system was still working as the lagging on the big pipes looked pretty neglected and there was no signs of any leaks which you would expect on a working system.

Decided tio find an internet cafe in this large town, so stopped at the side of the road and went into an electrical store to ask if they knew where there was one.  The proprieter of the store was called and he told me to go along the street 100metres then turn left at the lights, then there was an internet cafe about 100 metres on the left.  because distance was so short just pulled my helmet on and set off.  At the lights a lorry driver beeped his horn, and when I looked over he made the sign of putting on gloves and pointing back.  Realised I had left my gloves on the back box and they had slipped off over the 100 metres.  Pulled over to the side, went straight back and no sign of gloves, not in road, not placed at the side waiting to be retrieved!!
So bugger, only now have winter gloves, and the weather is just getting warmer again!!  Couldn't find internet cafe, but a kind woman walked me 200 mtres down the street and found the cafe on the right hand side!!
Updated the blog for a couple of hours, when I came to connect the camera to the computer, the proprieter started gesturing, apparently you have to pay another fee of about 1 pound to connect your device!!!!  First time I have come across this charge!

Started off again and tomtom stopped working and I realised it must not be charging and the battery had gone flat.  Thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that the severe jolts yesterday may have dislodged the fuse which is not tight in the fuse holder.   Stopped at a petrol station, and unpacked all the camping gear so I could remove the seat and got out my trusty Fluke multimeter to check the fuse etc.  The Fluke was not working, the display was just giving weak flickering figures.  I thought what a time for the battetry to go on the Fluke, so opened it up and removed the battery, the petrol station didn't have any PP9 batteries!!  Put the old battery back and hey presto all seemed to be working ok.  I think the Fluke didn't like the vibration yesterday either!!  Checked the fuse and all as expected, so back on the road.

Tomtom then took me on a lovely route along the side of the river Danube, but at times it was like being on the side of a fjord.  It was a beautiful run and reminded me of the route in Norway.

The road however was completely different to Norway.  At times you were on beautiful new tarmac, then without warning it went to old tarmac with huge potholes to be avoided, then at times the road just dissappeared and was simply gravel and potholes.  A really interesting route and experience.

As you ride along the side of the Danube you are looking over at Serbia on the other side.
On a couple of occasions I stopped to take photos of interesting things on the other side.  One was a working quarry on a vertical cliff side, and I am not sure what the other building is!!

The route tomtom has taken me to Belgrade seems particularly long and I am not sure why it has chosen this route, anyway decided to stop at a hotel still in Romania at a place called Oravita.


More later
TOR