Friday 17th April 2009
From Nibsy. Bill and Norman in Nibsy and Roddy and Dave in Late Entry docked at Dagenham at 0400 this morning (Friday). David and Paul in Mr Flibble will dock at Dagenham at 1600 this afternoon.
We had a fairly painless journey homeward across Europe arriving at Vlissingen at about 1330 yesterday afternoon having travelled ahead of the main convoy after breaking away in Austria.

Message from Chas at 2235. Dave and Paul aboard Mr Flibble have just arrived home safely and are the last ones back.

Thursday 16th April 2009 11 pm
Chas on Robin Hood. Despite French fishermen the returning convoy has just landed in Dover. We are all back in the UK apart from Mr Flibble who is on a 5am ferry tomorrow. Great team and great trip!

Wednesday 15th April
From Bev in Robin Hood. Started today with yet another flat battery, but despite the doom and gloom of the French port blockades and delay all is good at our end.

The Grumpies took a left instead of a right into somebody's garden on the pretence of wanting a grow bag!! Following this detour and probably after placing some shrubs in the back of the truck they arrived at the Serbian / Hungarian border, oblivious to the fact that their roller door was fully up and tail lift down a foot from the floor. They bluffed their way through saying that they had made the truck fully prepared for a quick and easy customs inspection. Well, it worked as we were cleared though very quickly.

From Elaine with Top Gear. Have stopped early for the night at a truckstop just short of Wurtzberg. Watched the sun go down whilst reflecting on the successful and sometimes emotional convoy. Most of the lads are inside having a beer. The Heavys have headed off to make the ferry deadline at Vlissingen, they're not affected by the blockade. We will not be rushing back in the hope that the blockade will be over by the time we reach Calais.

From Grumpies. We have been travelling through Germany in glorious sunshine. Stopped for tea where Gezims filo pie and Elaines Easter cake were consumed this afternoon. Very nice. Nice Norman offered Jan and Tom in Busby the loan of his comedy cd earlier to listen to in the cab but it doesn't work in the tacho slot as Jan had hoped for!

Update for 14th April

From Robin Hood. We were four minutes late leaving this morning but that did include us having a flat battery, and we don't think it was due to all of Chas's gadgets. But I'm afraid Bev was feeling the same as the battery all day!!
We sailed through the border and stopped near the Austrian border after 15 hours in the cabs, but a good day.
Unfortunately we had no time to celebrate Elaine's birthday until 11:15pm tonight at Hegyeshalom. Have heard rumours about French fishermen blockading the ports.

From Elaine. At the Tompa border between Serbia and Hungary at 1430 so now well into Hungary. Weather has turned cooler.

French Fisherman have blockaded Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk in a protest about fishing quotas. We are monitoring the situation and looking into contingency plans. We would request that well meaning supporters don't telephone convoyers with this news as it is costing them extra money to receive mobile telephone calls abroad. Thank you to those who brought this matter to our attention.

Update for 13th April

Bill (Nibsy) We are now on our way home. The school programme has gone exceptionally well. We have visited a total of 13 schools plus one further where we have left supplies for a 14th school with one of the Eulix police officers who will make the delivery for us next week. We have provided goods for well over 4000 children.
Now we face the long journey home. The HGV's will split away from the main convoy sometime tomorrow to travel ahead toward Vlissingen to board the Ford ferry to Dagenham, hopefully on Thursday.

Today has been much colder with a little rain. Yesterday I had the truck washed and valeted only for it to be covered in Kosovo mud again this morning.

From Bev (in Nibsy!)
I had a jaunt in Nibsy today with Bill and Norman going back to Leposavic Roma camp, in north Mitrovica, taking some schools equipment. We were warmly greeted and delivered a good load to the school hut, in which four children were being taught. It was great to see the class in action and lovely to go back. Then we went back to the warehouse via the best coffee in Kosovo, at the Hotel Palace.
After a non-starter from Robin Hood (flat battery), we left Kosovo and crossed into Serbia about 2.45pm, stopping at Hotel Nais, Nis at 17.30pm for the night as we were all tired. Hoping for an early start tomorrow.

From Coxy and Graham (Grumpies) We went to Ferizi today to deliver aid to Lumi's family home, from where the aid will be distributed to social families in the Ferizi area. We took this opportunity to go to the railway people to see how the chicken project, which we set up a couple of years ago, is going. We are extremely pleased to report that the chicken project is absolutely fantastic. We are informed that they are getting between 12 - 15 eggs per day. The cockerel called 'Chas' has been very busy and in consequence there is a broody hen who is sitting at the moment on, we think, 13 eggs. Whilst inspecting the site we were absolutely amazed at the condition of the chickens, none of which had been hen-pecked (like Chas!) and were in wonderful condition (unlike Chas' legs!). The lady who is looking after the chickens has actually trained the chickens to lay the eggs in an old car tyre which is filled with straw and grass. Graham and myself are extremely pleased that this project as far as we are concerned has been 100% successful.
On our return to the warehouse I showed Chas the three fresh eggs we were given. He obviously mis-understood that these were fresh Ferizi eggs and immediately took one out of Coxy's hat (as did Mirlinda - MTS) assuming they were hard boiled. When he tried to crack the egg, he found out that it was fresh this morning and the cab in Robin Hood was covered in egg white! Coxy is nursing his egg back to England to have for breakfast on his return.
Next month Maggie and Coxy are going to return to Kosovo to seek out similar projects -

Mich and Mike of the Flying Crew. The Flying Crew with British Airways have landed safely this evening, and are now on their final homeward journies. Flying crew = Mich, Mike E, Mike P, Sam, Anthony, Dave, Carolyn, Jackie and Tina. (Bernie has flown with Austrian Airlines).
Thank you for all the wonderful support we had in Kosovo from our local friends old and new. It's been a hard working but rewarding week.

John (Eulex Police) Myself, Martin, Sam (from Bolton), Carolyn and Agnessa visited one of Martin's previous police patrol areas of Novo Brdo to deliver some of our own family donations along with some excess from the warehouse (thank you Paul). This was attempted as a "lets do it" (Martin speak) rather than an organised drop. What a truly uplifting experience. The village elder/community leader chose 3 families who he knew were the very needy for particular attention. Words cannot describe what we witnessed. Just ask Sam and Carolyn. To us new boys/girls, the conditions one particular family of seven were having to live in, one room, beggars belief. But, then, the children's eyes lit up, their smiles covering their faces, at the sight of the toys, priceless!! Their parents were just so emotional that total strangers were giving them boxes of food, clothes and bedding to try and make their lives just that little more bearable.
Martin and myself were informed that, as part of Eulex, we would not make a difference in Kosovo. This past week has proved that so wrong. Your wonderful charity now has 4 more followers and that will increase as we start to involve our families and friends particularly my wife, Di, who has already set the ball rolling, if only to get me out of the house for another 2 weeks. To all of you involved with the charity, you have given us a week that we will never forget. We have also gained a new family of very good friends. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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