2 in 1 – a springtime & winter experience

Homolje Gold Rush is traditionally the tour which opens our main 4×4 season each springtime. A tour in the magnificent serbian Carpathian mountains, offering all kinds of sensations and challenges to the participant – from technical driving, through breathtaking vistas from attractive scenic viewpoints, deep forests, canyons, river crossing, etc. On top of all that, it’s an overwhelming cultural experience, in an area with an ancient gold panning tradition spanning hundreds of years in the past, with an organized visit to the biggest gold mine in Serbia. So there was really a lot to see and experience for the participants.

On top of that, three of the five participating vehicle owners agreed to make an extra tour for three more days preceding the Easter hollidays, and it was conducted as a camping tour. It took place further north, in the forests of the Iron Gate national park, giving to the participants a “sneak preview” of the Iron Gate and the Stone Arches tour. The weather was great, so it was really a fantastic camping experience, both on the Danube shore, as well as on campsites deep in the forests.

The main part of the tour started on Easter Sunday, and marked a change in the weather conditions, but still offered us three more or less stable days for enjoying the trails of the Homolje mountains, featuring the muddy forest Trest, caves like Ceremošnja and Rajkova, and extraordinary scenic points like Zdravča and Kununa, an attractive drive through the black river canyon, as well as a visit to the highest stone arch of Serbia, Valja Prerast.

But then, all of the sudden, everything changed on April 19th. A strong weather front from the west brought back the long forgotten winter, with up to 30 cm of fresh snow and temperatures up to -5C in the mountains. So the highest of the mountain ranges featured in this tour, the Kučaj mountains, gave us a real tough winter experience at the end of April!

If the participants weren’t sure before why they needed MT tyres for this tour, these were the days when they certainly found that out, while resolving the mud problems, with lots of winching. We even had a situation with changing a tyre which slipped off the wheel in the middle of a steep, muddy ascent – not an easy task to complete.

The final day of the tour, Friday April 21st, was an 80 km long diagonal traversing of Kučaj mountains, the largest uninhabited wilderness area in Serbia. And it was certainly a challenge in the snow blizzard that lasted virtually all day long. Take a peak at this extraordinary winter atmosphere:

A word about the boys (and a girl) in the tour – again we’ve had a fantastic, positive team of people who cling together as if they’re long time friends, with no misunderstandings, having very similar expectations from the tour, who left for home with great memories, promising to come together again – but this time for a camping tour in the long, hot serbian summer. And I’m sure they mean it! 😎

 

Click to See the entire photo album with 190 images from the tour!

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