Bezdan to Monach

July the 21st

We leave Mercur after the morning coffee; Mercur is waiting for another boat that shall arrive during the day. We want to go through the customs before Mercur, since we suspect to encounter some problems due to we have changed the crew.

neighbour-boat running around to satisfy border-policemen (this is a photo by hidden camera, since taking pictures was prohibited)

Well, we almost could get away with it – the border police were not at all interested in our passports, but the fact that we checked in 7 persons and are checking out 8 was a big problem – “ne dobre” they said. Well, some hours later the police came to the conclusion that the way to check us out was rather simple – we should destroy the “original” revision and produce a new one. The only question was who can type a new list, since they could now accept a handwritten one. But then the officer in charge wanted to go home, it was the end of his shift, so he found a river agent who had a computer and could type the list. The officer suggested we should give the agent a bottle of beer as a gesture to thank him. We so did but he said he really would have done it for free and reluctantly accepted the bottle.

Later in the evening we cleared in to Hungary. Basically the same procedure: Harbour master, passport police, water protection officer and doctor (making sure we have no infectious deceases through talking to the skipper). Only difference was that it was done in 15 minutes. Again we met Mercur and hitch-hiked with them during the night, now they are going really fast, ca 11km/h. Distances and speed are calculated in metric system while navigating on the river, which irritates Magnus endlessly.

Serbian border

Thursday, July the 16th

Thursday morning we are waked by the Mercur 205 crew. We are at Veliko Gradiste, a small town on Serbian side of the river, ca 15 km before we shall enter Serbia on both sides. Mercur will anchor the barges and we will go together to the border police.

We moor and the skipper leaves with all the papers. It is ca 8:00 AM, but already hot. Olga wakes the kids to play in the playground which lies just 30 m from the boat. She herself goes through nearby streets in hope to find an ATM and get some local cash to buy ice-cream for the crew, but there are none and the café would not accept a credit card.

An hour later two female police arrive with our passports. They compare us to the photos in the passports and tell us to stay inside the boat until we get our passports back, some ten or fifteen minutes later.

Magnus comes back and tells how many papers he had to fill in. Now he should wait until he gets a paper that we paid the tax for passing through Serbian part of Donau, ca 60 EUR. A guy comes with the paper an hour later, but still no pass-polices. Olga and the kids want to go ashore (so they do), and Magnus goes and asks for their passports. He gets them back, just the three of them. Then Olga decides to go into the town to get some local cash and ice-cream.

We wait and wait, but the control – they call it “revision” here – is not ready. It goes even worse for Mercur, during the revision the border police finds some flies in the cargo on barges. So they will have to stay until Monday, threaten the police.

Girls take a bath in the river whil waiting.

Magnus decides that we shall not wait for Mercur, he finishes our revision. We want to have a dinner inland and then leave for Beograd. A police comes by (we bet we were watched all the time) and informs us that it is ok to go inland, but first we have to go through the passport control again since we are checked-out at the moment. To go into the town at the moment is a “big offence”. Magnus cannot hear of more paperwork and we leave at once.

no restaurant's dinner this time, but nevertheless very tasty


and a good view.