1200 The ride to Sremski Karlovci from Novi Sad is quick and the hill up from the Danube no problem - maybe because I’ve been able to dump 20kg of stuff in the Belgrade team’s minibus. The final run downhill  into Sremski Karlovci sees the highest speed of the tour - 50kph on the cycle computer.  The train station at Sremski Karlovci is a vine-strewn building with a shady garden. The heavy black presence of an express steam engine and the ‘Romantic’ train carriages completes a bucolic pre-Beeching image of a rural railway line.

This last ride has passed so quickly there is a sense of pent-up energy and enthusiasm for the next challenge.  Aching legs are quickly forgotten and new friendships cemented in promises of future rides.  My Turkish friend who had first ridden a bike a few weeks ago is now cooking up ambitious plans for a ride along the Aegean coast of Turkey through Troy and Ephesus. Another idea from my Macedonian colleague was an Adriatic route through Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and maybe beyond!