Distance: 98km
Elevation: 700m
Once again, the night had been very cold. Like a herd of animals, all cyclists had put up their tents next to each other under a metal roof to be protected from the rain. It was mostly a collection of MSR Hubba Hubba.
I was up the earliest and went over to the outdoor kitchen to make fire. I worked on my blog and had breakfast while Francesco was coming over. 
It was simply too cold to sit, so we both stood around the fireplace. 
Around 8:15am we both were in the saddle. We had decided to ride together for one day more. Francesco would combine two of his day trips into one and I would reduce my daily mileage a little.
We followed the Danube river, and once again the views were really breathtaking. On the other side, we saw Romania the entire day.
We had an early lunch in Donji Milanovac. Once again, we had a salad and meat with meat. The Serbian cuisine consists mostly of different forms of meat and some side dishes.
The waiter who had lost most of his teeth already, spoke fluent Italian. It was a great way for Francesco to also have a conversation with a local for once.
We asked him to prepare also sandwiches for us so that we were covered for dinner. In hindsight, a very smart move. 
We topped up our supplies in a shop nearby. Then we were approaching the so-called Iron Gate, a narrow valley where the walls were up to 90 m high.
All of this was part of the Djerdap National Park, which is well known for its wildlife, including wolves, lynx, and a small population of brown bears.
The route required some climbing, but it was definitely worth it. We had quite some rain during midday, but we did not actually meet the thunderstorm that had been forecasted.
Doing a rest on one of our climbs, we met Drago and his family. Drago had been born here, but had spent most of his life in Denmark and Sweden because his father had immigrated there, when he was still a boy.
Today, his danish was actually better than his Serbian, he mentioned. He was now a pensioner and was visiting his home country to show it to his family.
A little later, we saw the 40-meter-tall face of King Decebalus carved into the rock on the Romanian side of the Danube.
He had been the last king of Dacia who had fought against the Romans. They had been led by emperor Trajan and were interested in the natural resources like gold and silver that was prevalent in the mountains here.
In other words, nothing has changed since the last 2100 years. 
Around 100 BC the Romans finally defeated the local kingdom and assimilated it into their empire. The name Romania directly relates to this fact. 
While the statue looks ancient, it was only completed in the 1990s and had been financed by a local businessman.
Just below, we saw the small yet picturesque orthodox Mraconia Monastery.
While it looked old, the current structure was completed in 2000, built on the site of a former 15th-century monastic settlement that was submerged due to the construction of the Iron Gates hydroelectric dam.
Francesco took quite some risks to get some great shots for his YouTube channel.
Cycling had been relatively easy today, but due to the tunnels we had two near death experiences. Both involved trucks who were going at a too high speed.
Since Francesco‘s rear light did not work, I would go last in each of the many tunnels. In a very narrow part, a truck approached with high speed, and the sound was amplified by the walls of the tunnel. I was certain that he would hit me. It was frightening.
In another occasion, when we had almost reached our destination, Francesco was almost being pushed against the wall by a truck overtaking in a place where he should not have.
After around 100 km, we approached a camping site that I had found on an app called iOverlander which had been recommended to me by a fellow cyclist. It was unknown to Google maps or Komoot. I was a little bit skeptical, if that place would be real.
When we were cycling through the dirty back roads of the small village that were full of barking dogs, my doubts grew only stronger.
And then, like a miracle, suddenly a sign appeared, pointing us to our campground. We were greeted by Ranka who spoke fluent German. She was super nice and made us feel welcome and at home.
The place looked like paradise in our eyes, and it even had a fridge with a full supply of cold local beer.
We quickly set up tent because it was going to rain once more.
We were having dinner under a little gazebo so that we stayed dry.
We were both tired from the day and went to bed early.
Another great day to be thankful for!