Our second report today is from Dave Smith. After what seems a pretty uneventful day the crews arrived at Szeged in the early afternoon and settled down for the night to await the main convoy, due to arrive Sunday.

Sunday 1 October 2006 - Chas Lewry reports that the convoy finally stopped for the night after an eventful drive from Belgium to the Czech Republic. There were problems with Protractor (loss of power) and Robin Hood (loss of break lights). They've settled down for the night in a remote village where a restaurant has agreed to provide everyone with food and beer (at 11.00 pm!)

The crews arrived there thanks to the sat navs which were generously provided by Steve Gubbins of Garmin. They've proved invaluable for night navigation. Many thanks Steve.

Monday 2 October 2006 - Message received from Bev just before midnight last night the main convoy met up with the 40 tonners in Szeged on the Hungarian/Serbian border and all is well. Chas took Robin Hood apart and put it back together again - still no brake lights, but the crew are looking after them. Took advantage of a greasy spoon in Czech Republic when Charles worked on the cab.

The plan is for everyone to be on their way by 9 am this morning (Monday).

Tuesday 3 October 2006 - Two updates received on Monday, the first from Charles Lewry. The convoy crossed the border into Serbia at Subotica at around 11 am this morning and are waiting for customs clearance formalities to be completed. Estimates are between two and six hours. Last night Charles managed to enjoy a shower and shave for the fist time since hitting the road last week, at the hotel Nibsy and the 40 tonner drivers has organised on the Hungarian border. The previous nights' journey was a huge improvement on previous years because of a brand new motorway from Budapest down to Sveged - just a pity its not on the sat navs yet.

Ideally the Kosovo crew would like to be down to Nis tonight and the Romania crew would like to be into Romania. The two parties will separate at Novi Sad in Serbia.

The second update is from Bernie Callanan who is the daughter of Frank and joins us for the first time. Everyone's been enjoying the warm weather front, which Frank has been forecasting each morning, and taking advantage of the delay at the Serbian border (2 hours at the time of receipt) to enjoy tea and cake (thank you Tom's mum-in-law) around Nibsy and Norman's truck. There's a book being run, currently running at €5, on what time they'll get across the border.

The wait is providing good bonding time along with much CB banter and jokes. Next on the agenda is circuit training, power pacing with Elaine and Doreen around the car park, with a bit of pressure on the guards to "let us go".

Wednesday 4 October 206-  Another two updates, the first from Bev Storer, Team Romania. Left the Kosovo Team yesterday (Monday) and cleared the border at 3.15, but met again at the first tolls as papers not cleared for free passage. Chas and Tom are following up now. Arrived at the Romanian border after going off route to find a motel (without luck). At 10.30 cleared easily and through at 1 am Romanian time. Everyone was greeted by Blythewood Care, who were very helpful.

The crew found a pizza place which very kindly reopened at 1.30 am and cooked up pizza and served everyone with half a pint of raki each. Now waiting to clear customs (again).

The second update was received from Malcolm Havercroft via email, again from the Team Romania:

After a frustrating day of border hassles we are finally in Romania en-route to our destination at Calarasi.

We tried to get into Romania from Serbia at Jimbolia late on Monday night but had to stay in town until Customs opened the next day. We caught the local pizza restaurant who re opened to serve us at 02.00! They even gave us a lethal shot of their homemade slivo which had a strange effect on Elaine and Doreen who tried to strike up a conversation with a statue on the way back to the hotel.

Next day (this morning) we were told it was impossible to import food through this location. Long tense negotiations followed which resulted in us being sent back into Serbia to travel South to another crossing at Moravita were more beaurocrats were waiting to spoil our day. We finally got through thanks to our saintly patience and the invaluable help of Dr Adrian Popa from Blythewood Care in Romania who managed to find solutions to the many obstacles put in our way.

Chas and Bev have been in contact throughout the day with the Kosovo contingent now safely arrived and Lin from our Romania aircrew who arrived in Bucharest earlier today.

Our plan is for a 06.00 start tomorrow (Wed) and to try to get to our destination before midnight.

Thursday 5 October 2006 - Several updates today, received yesterday, but too late to post last night. The first is from Charles Lewry - Team Romania. The trucks followed Chas down to our rather small warehouse in Spantov, one of the towns affected by the floods. After some superbly skilled manoeuvring by Mr Flibble (he is a professional after all) all the trucks were safely parked in the compound. Three out of the four trucks were unloaded, thanks to the help of several enthusiastic locals. Lin (Holland) is doing her usual efficient job of organising the warehouse. All the crew are very tired on the long journey back to the hotel.

The second update is by way of a photograph from Kosovo, with many thanks to Arijeta and shows two children who have just received items for our delivery in the Mitrovica region.

Our third update is from Audrey Nice Team Kosovo.

Greetings from Pristina. A busy day for the Kosovo convoy today with buses Busby, plus Michelle, Nibsy, Two Callas and Protractor heading for Mitrovica, Sea Dogs and Brother Bear to Vushtrrij and Rice Maidens plus Judy to Skenderaj. In total 370 families, 2,026 individuals, received aid. Tina and Dave L deserve a massive thanks from us all for their efforts in the warehouse. After a day out all buses returned to neat piles of aid to be packed straightaway. What a pair of superstars!

Aid prepared ready for distribution tomorrow

As a newby to the convoy I was lucky to head out with old hands (sorry boys, not too old) Coxy and John in the Sea Dogs truck. Nothing really prepares you for seeing the burned out buildings left over from the war for the first time. Today was a real lesson in the history of the conflict for me. In Vushtrrij we distributed to a 132 families and all ran surprisingly smoothly thanks to an ideal drop-off warehouse, experienced convoyers and a scary local.

All the hard work is rewarded when you see the smile on a young face

The biggest hit of the day has to have been the new trainers, very eagerly sought after, and the individual children's' boxes given out to our willing helpers. I like to think that we bought a little ray of sunshine today to a few families - blankets for the winter, toys for the children - and am pleased to say that riots were avoided - even when Coxy started handing out sweeties.

As a side-note I have to say Coxy's driving was surprisingly calm. I had heard rumours, although compared to Kosovan driving that may not be much of a compliment! So, to quote John Desty, this is perhaps the most organised convoy ever and we were back at the hotel by 6 pm.

Only one thing for it: Happy Birthday Nisby. Time for a beer I reckon.

Friday 6 October 2006 - The first of today's updates is from Bev in Romania. Today the crews left at 7.45 am and arrived at the warehouse at 9.30 am and commenced distribution to 160 families, the majority of whom are gypsy and had been affected by the flooding and living in makeshift tents. It was a good team effort and excellent local help. Eighty-two families didn't arrive so they'll be seen on Saturday before the team heads back to Chislet where they plan to offload the 40 tonner to in excess of 250 families.  Everyone now off for dinner and an early night.