It was a fairly long travel day leaving Novi Sad. First, a mile and a half walk to the bus station followed by an hour or so bus ride back to Belgrade. Then a half mile walk to a bus stop where I rolled the dice and took a free ride across town (shhh!). And then I did something I always swore I wouldn’t do, I rented a car. Most of the places I want to go visit these next couple of weeks don’t have public transport, or it would cost me a fortune in taxis. So now I have my own wheels, a brand new Fiat 500. It’s about the exact color, size, and shape of a large booger.

Anyway, I made my way to the eastern side of the country doing my best with all the strange and unfamiliar road signs until I reached a very unexciting town, Donji Milanovac, in the middle of Serbia’s biggest, most dramatic, and least visited national park, Derdap, aka Iron Gates

Derdap National Park is a huge expanse of dramatic cliffs along the Danube River. In this northeastern corner of the country, the Danube is the border with Romania, so I get to wave to all the Romanians doing Romanian things on the other side while I’m here. My first stop was the Golubac Fortress, in the western part of the park.

Golubac Fortress was originally started in the 14th century. Back then this was arguably one of the most important outposts in Europe because the Danube was then the border between Serbia and Hungary and it was also the gateway between Europe and Turkey. This also happens to be the widest part of the river (7km to the other side) just before it narrows to the iron gates area. As you can imagine, this place saw a lot of action and changed hands many times. I bet they never imagined me running up and down the towers with a camera like an 8 year old though.

Next up was Lepenski Vir. It seems someone was going to build a dam somewhere and some archeologists wanted to explore the area before it flooded. They found lots of artifacts spanning all eras of history. Then one day, on nothing more than a gut feeling, the lead archeologist decided to dig a little deeper and they discovered a roughly 8000 year old village! They discovered the foundations of homes, tools, statuary, and graves. They were a very organized and structured society and were quite possibly the oldest civilization in Europe, and they were right here on the Danube. The archeologists painstakingly moved every stone and stick to rebuild the village on higher ground and then covered it with this very modern building. It’s a fascinating place!

My second day I was up early and headed to the eastern portion of Derdap for a hike up to the highest peak in the park, Veliki Strbac. I registered with a ranger and then started up. There were a few other cars parked nearby, but I didn’t see another soul all day, other than the ranger of course.

To say this was a pretty hike would be a gross understatement. It was short on views until I reached the top, but it was heavily forested and shady, super quiet except for the wind blowing through the trees, and though there was a lot of elevation gain, it was pretty gradual and smooth all the way up. The first real excitement I had was startling three wild boars near the top. They created quite a ruckus! The second was finally coming out of the trees at the summit and seeing the breathtaking view of the Iron Gates, the narrowest part of the Danube.

On the way back down I took a short detour to the Ploce viewpoint, closer to the water, but right on the edge of the cliff. In total it was a little over nine miles of hiking. What an absolutely fantastic day!

When I first saw my little booger of a car I thought, “I can’t drive around in that thing.” After a couple of days, though, I’m starting to like it. It has a crazy tight turning radius and its small enough to park on the sidewalk, which you can actually do in some places. Anyway, after descending down from Ploce viewpoint I drove a bit further east to look at the rock carving on the Romanian side of the river of King Decebalus, who battled the Romans. It was hard to get good pictures because of the distance and the sun was shining right in my face, but there he is. On the way back to Donji Milanovac I stopped at several viewpoints for pics because this park is just so unbelievably pretty!

My final day had me traveling to a place that’s technically outside the national park, but it didn’t matter because this whole region is just stunning. My starting point was the Vratna monastery, which isn’t very exciting despite it’s idyllic location. This place is honest and truly in the boonies! The reason for coming here, however, was to hike to the three natural arches nearby, the Kapija hike. I headed out to the furthest one first. About half way I came out of the forest next to the farm in the pic below. That big red tractor was driving towards me when the man inside started yelling at me. Was he angry? Trying to warn me about a piano falling from the sky? I couldn’t tell, but I waited for him anyway. He hopped out of the tractor and walking towards me tapped himself on the chest and said, “Serbia.” I tapped myself on the chest and said, “America.” That apparently made his day because then he shook my hand and we had the most pleasant conversation, one in which neither of us could understand what the other was saying. LOL I only understood three words, Serbia, internet, and Gorin. So his name is Gorin, he’s from Serbia, he knows what the internet is, and he has a phone number because he gave it to me before I continued on my hike. Gotta love these cross cultural exchanges.

After chatting with Gorin, I continued to Suva Kapija (Dry Gate). This hike clearly doesn’t see many visitors. The whole route there was so overgrown and rough going. I really could’ve used a machete in some parts. It was only about two and half miles, but I really worked hard for this one. The size and scope of Suva Kapija is difficult to convey with pictures. I estimate it’s probably four stories high. I wandered around a bit lost because I just couldn’t figure out how to photograph it properly, but it’s massive and awe inspiring!

I found another route back towards the monastery, making this a nice loop hike. That trail wasn’t any less overgrown or rough however. It followed the riverbed for quite a while before climbing back up the hill. In other words I had to work just as hard getting back. Luckily, even though the trails are really overgrown and not maintained, there’s really great signage and trail markers here. The other two “gates” are only about a half a mile from the monastery. Finally, I made it back to a well defined trail and Veliki Kapija (Big Gate) appeared. This one is the biggest of the three! Again I wandered around scratching my head trying to figure out how to get it on my camera.

Just a few hundred feet up the hill from Veliki, is Mala Kapija (Small Gate). Let’s just say that after the amazing day I just had, Mala Kapija was… cute.

This has been a really incredible stop on this Balkan adventure. This region of Serbia is so incredibly beautiful and pleasant that it’s hard to say goodbye, but as always, more adventures await. The next two stops are gonna be quick ones, so you won’t have to wait long for more.