Hope
and Aid Direct - UK - Croatia & Bosnia
November
1999
_________________________________________________
Convoy of Eight
We can’t be late
To get to our Destinations
But it’s getting dark - no
time for a lark
Nor even hesitations!
With “Busby” in tow
And Tom’s ear all of a glow
-
They must be getting a
bashing
We’re on the move - We’re in
the Groove
In fact, we are almost
dashing
Now it was going well -
‘til “Showman” dropped a
bollock
Of course ‘Barrett Blue
& Jeff’ stuck like glue
Can’t think what rhymes with
‘ollock’!
Still never mind
It’s kind-a nice
To know Chas isn’t the only
silly Rollock!
There’s a moral to this
sorry tale - or was it a “Red Herring”
Rob and Mark they’ve hit the
mark
Their exploits - Now that would be telling?
The “Didcot” Wagon’s doing
well
So’s “Beehive”, from BT
If we keep up this cracking
pace
We’ll all be there for Tea!
As for me I’m tuckered out
My brain has just stopped
working
That’s all from Chas in
Robin Hood
and Bev - she’s off to do
some cooking
_____________________________________________________
Great start! - Chas was late due to
delays with collecting the lorry jack and traffic on A127 - picked me up and CB
stopped working and then arrived at Dover after everyone else! (even though we
should have met Mike and Olga much earlier)
Lorry weighed in at 8.5 tons, not bad going.
We had a brilliant load that consisted of:
·
Blankets
- boxes of them
·
Chocolate
- Mars, Snickers - 1 full pallet
·
Clothes
- variety, men’s, women’s, children’s, gloves
·
Food
- soup, pasta, flour, oil, spaghetti, rice, sugar, tinned food - kidney beans,
chick peas, dried fruit, tea, salt, biscuits
·
Gillette
razors, shaving cream and foam
·
Godzilla
and Spider Men toys
·
Johnson’s
baby shampoo and bath gel
·
Johnson’s
Baby Wipes - 48 boxes
·
Olbas
Oil - smells great!
·
Plastic
buckets - large and small - 150
·
Starburst
sweets - ‘til they were coming out of our ears
·
Teddies
for tragedies - 200
·
Thermometers
- 2 boxes
·
Toiletries
- soap, shampoo, bath gel, toilet rolls, sanitary towels
·
Tools
from Tools with a Mission (7 old ammunition boxes)
·
Toothpaste
- 108 boxes
·
Toys
galore, including two bikes, rocking horse, Henry and Harry the Lions
After
we had sorted out logistics, clearance of goods, seals etc, we got the 2.30pm
ferry, which was slightly delayed.
After altering our headlight beams, attaching flags and charity stickers
all lorries were boarded. It was a
smooth crossing and we all spent most of it in the truckers lounge and then did
a bit of duty-free shopping – mainly Archers!
Arrived at Calais 4.30pm (local time).
Drove across France, Belgium, and Germany to Aachen where we had a quick
stop and then down to Nurenburg arriving at 4.30am where we had three hours
sleep – it was most needed and welcomed.
Had
a great start to the day - ‘Lorry Service - á la Mr Kelly’ tea on a tray and
bacon ‘sarnie’, can’t be bad! Had a quick wash and we were off again by 8.30am
for a full day hoping to reach Croatia that night. Stopped briefly a few times en-route and reached ‘Hamburger
Hill’, Austria late that afternoon, where we had our first sighting of
snow. Arrived Austria/Slovenia border
at 9.10pm - quite mild.
Drove
across Slovenia to the Croatian border.
Stopped just before to sort out lorries – i.e. retrieval of personal
gear from back into the front cab, and then sealed up the lorries. Had fun
sorting out seals into pairs with virtually identical numbers so that if
necessary, we could break the vehicles open and re-seal them if for any reason
they were impounded for any length of time.
(The tricks that we have to employ are sometimes best not known by
others – I can’t put in print where we our supply of seals from for example!)
Jeff checked everyone’s vehicles for oil and water.
At
the border all the lorries were weighed, seals and contents checked and then
re-sealed. Mike found me asleep at the
wheel - 1.35am and shortly after that ‘Little John’ and ‘Robin Hood’ were
through, waiting for the other six lorries.
It
was touch and go, as to whether they would get through that evening because the
aid they had was for distribution in Bosnia not Croatia. Michael had to pay 1,000 DM to get all six
lorries through (equivalent to £300) but they were cleared and through by
2.30am. Off we went again to the services
near Zagreb arriving at approximately 3.15am.
The motel had allowed us to sleep on the TV room floor for the
night. However, before sleeping we all
decided to go over to ‘Red Herring’ for a few drinks in their bus - very
comfy. Steve had us all in stitches
with jokes - one after another, probably the most apt was the ‘Bosnian’
prostitute joke - very hard to say when you’ve had a few ‘Archers!’
Back
to the cab for 4.35am and had to sleep in the front because of course all the
backs were still sealed awaiting customs clearance.
Darling Jeff woke us at 7am,
bouncing on the front of the cab singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” - a tad
loud - Croatia’s early morning call!
Saw the others and said ‘byes’. We wouldn’t see them again until we
reached Bosnia. We drove straight down
to customs in Zagreb and while we waited for Suzana, we had smoked salmon on
brown, and tea. Met Suzana and Pamela
(who looked great). Customs checked the
goods and cleared them. At 10am we left
the girls and went over to Gorna Bistra, our contact being Dr. Dooshitter.
It
was a very moving visit. As soon as we
arrived Voya, who is now 3 years old, was at the window shouting and waving to
Chas (he’s such a lovely little boy) – The doctor said that his first words
were “What have you bought us?”. First we unloaded all of ‘Little John’s’
baby wipes and some Starburst sweets- they couldn’t believe their eyes when the
boxes just kept coming. We parked up
the lorries and then went and visited all the orphan children.
Voya
was our guide for the entire visit. He
didn’t look as well as the last time we saw him, not that he looked ‘well’
then, but he appeared to have more sores this time which was distressing, I
don’t know if it is because he is growing (which he certainly has in the last
five months). We went into most of the
rooms and saw Daniel who was untied this time - which was lovely to see, he is
very strong as I found out and still has a permanent smile on his face -
absolutely amazing considering. He is
still ticklish too; we had a big hug.
I
didn’t see Stonker, and wish I had asked to on reflection, but I’m worried that
I have may have had his name wrong (you have to admit it is unusual - if it is
correct?). Around noon, we said our
goodbyes, which was hard, and headed off out of Gorna and stopped in a lay-by
for Brunch. Chas and Mike tried to fix
our CB, (Robin Hood) – we were getting terrible interference, whilst Jeff and I
cooked brunch which was pretty good (OK so Jeff cooked most of it).
Re-met
Pamela and Vladimir at Customs at 2.30pm.
It was extremely busy there as it was a bus station too. We then drove across to Beli Manastir. I was feeling particularly tired and it
seemed a very long journey across. Chas
was nearly falling asleep at the wheel, so I took over for a period and think
my driving was pretty haphazard, although Jeff didn’t comment! Arrived at
Marijan's at 7.45pm. Met by Marijan,
Branie etc. Pamela and Vladimir went
off after a discussion about our objectives, to stay with Pamela’s
parents. It was decided that as it was
Sabbath the next day, we would get up and start sorting out the lorries between
6am - 8am, before the people began to arrive for their church service at Marijan’s.
Mike
and Jeff were taken to Branie’s house for the evening whilst Chas and I stayed
with Marijan, Mira, Daniel and Michael.
Mira is wonderful and although she speaks little English, we didn’t seem
to have a problem. Her father was
staying with them as he suffers from incontinence (for our entire stay, we
didn’t see him, he stays in bed all the time - I guess he is depressed and
feels there is no point in getting up in the morning – it’s an awful situation
and very sad). We had a great meal and
then fell asleep at the table whilst Marijan tried to explain about the gypsies
in Torjanci! The comfort of the bed was
very much appreciated.
Saturday 13 November
(Sabbath for some!)
Awoke
to the doorbell ringing – ‘what silly idiot was that at 5am??’ - Oops it was Mike and Jeff! - some silly
idiot, Bev, forgot to put her alarm clock to local time! - never got ready so
quick and was straight up and out. We
worked solidly for two hours sorting our lorries, taking off stuff we knew we
wouldn’t have time to distribute and placing it in the garage. Mike and Marijan went off to Novi-Bolman to
visit a family who needed a paint job done.
The
family is very poor as they don’t have jobs and have no land to cultivate. They originally lived in Serbia and had a
farm etc, but because they are now forced to live in Croatia they have nothing,
and have only recently started to receive government help - although this is
small and irregular.
When
Mike arrived back we had breakfast and planned our day ahead. Jeff was desperate for a towel! So we
persuaded Chas to take half an hour out and go to the local market, then over
to Rosa’s to see the children. Then
onto Novi-Bolman for a bit of painting, back to Beli Manastir to start packing
bags and buckets with the help of the locals – aim, to finish for 4pm (as the
Sabbath ends then) and they would then be able to assist.
We
drove into Beli Manastir and went to the market. It was very cold. Jeff
and Mike bought a bumper pack of towels; some chillies, garlic, paprika and
Jeff bought some Slivo. At one stall we
hinted and the owner gave us all a shot – the first being to Jeff. This warmed us up nicely and after buying
some flowers for Mira and Branie’s mother we went to the coffee shop for a
quick drink.
Then
over to Rosa’s (the grandmother with the 5 orphan children that lost their
parents so tragically, and whose home we decorated and furnished back in April)
– the children were great and two of the boys came running out to greet us
followed by Rushitica, Natasha and Rosa.
I was so pleased to see them, as we all were. It was an emotional time for us all. The difference to their house was astounding and to see that they
had taken such pride in it since our last visit was great. Natasha was even sweeping up the front yard,
with the broom that we had brought them last time! Had a great time with them giving them: “Henry”, “Harry”, a bike,
gloves, coats, boots and Christmas Pudding the latter being from Rob, food,
toiletries etc. It was hard to say
goodbye but we had to get over to Novi-Bolman. We said we would go back on
Monday, before we left.
Marijan
came over to get us in between his church services, because we had stayed
longer than anticipated, and he lead us to Novi-Bolman. We just scraped under a bridge - which was
touch and go, the aerials got a bit of a bashing. The house where we were going to do some painting was potentially
very nice, if money had been available,
but it needed much work inside and out, including the outside toilet. Anna, a relative of the family (currently
residing in Vienna) was there and spoke English, which was a great help.
Jeff
plastered the walls, Chas and I painted the living room a nice ‘Barrett Yellow’
whilst Mike worked hard in the lorry sorting out goods etc. I went out to help Mike after finishing with
painting, and left Chas and Jeff to carry on.
When we had finished the family laid on dinner for us, but as usual
didn’t eat with us. They had killed a
goose and cooked it for us and we sat down to a nice meal - if I hadn’t known
the goose was living earlier that day, it would have been better!
Anna,
the father and the two children led us back to Beli Manastir and we arrived at
Marijan's about 4.15pm. The support
from the village was great with a few star helpers who were there at Easter. We managed, with ease, to distribute two of
the mattresses to people who didn’t have one.
Everyone mucked in and it was a real feeling of team spirit - sorting
out goods, splitting them up into bags and buckets so that everyone got roughly
the same as we dropped them off. In
total we made over 1,000 goody bags.
Each of the helpers got one, of both toiletries and food, and the
children each had a Godzilla or Spider Man.
Lots of chocolate eaten too during the three and half-hours we all spent
working. During this time I got my new
nickname ‘Scruffy Babe’ - thanks to Jeff – who was absolutely right!! -
Definitely Scruffy that’s for sure – I looked down at myself when he made the
comment and he had hit the nail right on the head!
The
four of us were dying for a drink and after getting Marijan's permission sat on
the lorry with Branie drinking a Pivo and Archers along with peanuts. Branie asked if I knew what peanut meant in
Hungarian, of course I didn’t, and he said he’d explain tomorrow. Marijan then gave Jeff and Mike a lift back
to Branie's while Chas and I changed ready to party! - he then came back and
announced the party had been cancelled because we were too tired and had to
eat. Mira again made us a lovely meal
and before we knew it, it was 11.30pm and this time it was Marijan who was
flagging at the table.
Chas
and I were up early and out sorting lorries at 7am. Mira brought out rolls and tea for us. Mike and Jeff arrived shortly after. As soon as we were ready, we went off and registered our presence
at the police station and then drove over to Torjanci. We were met on the village boundary by Nina
and Pamela on their bikes and everyone received a very warm welcome from Nina,
which all the boys enjoyed! Within
minutes friction had started between Branie and Nina resulting in Nina going
home (family disputes) which was a shame.
Our
first drop was to a family who had a newborn baby - we gave them toys, clothes,
food, toiletries and tools, and pressed on as we had a lot of homes to
visit. The plastic sheeting Mike had
brought out, was an absolute god-send, the locals were incredibly grateful and
after one demonstration they were all hard at work sealing up their windows
which had cracked panes of glass in them, or had been completely open until
now.
We
continued dropping goods until 2pm.
Chas and I went to Nina's for lunch.
Mike and Jeff went to Pamela’s.
Nina's parents were great and it was lovely to see them again. I felt very sad that they had had to move to
Trojanci after living in Beli Manastir which was marginally better. Torjanci has received no aid since the
war. They have very little electricity,
mud tracks into the village and it is extremely remote, on the Hungarian
border, surrounded by mine fields that have not been de-activated. Verecia was outside cooking pizza for us
when we arrived. She does have an
electric oven inside, but they cannot afford to run it, it’s gleaming and
obviously they are proud they own it.
She also cooks outside because she doesn’t like the smell of food
lingering in the house! Dinner was
wonderful and masses of it. Marion,
Nina’s father, concentrated on getting the electricity working and did
eventually. Had a really good time with
them and heard why they had moved back there - When we last visited they had
been renting a house from an old lady in Beli Manister, who promised, that when
she died they could have her house as Verecia, Marion and Nina had all looked
after her so well. They lived there for
a while, until her sister came back from Serbia and insisted they moved out
whilst she sold the house. It was
fortunate that they still had the house in Torjanci from before the war; they
moved when the war had started because of the safety factor and work, and have
now returned to it working very hard to get it more habitable.
We
left a lot of Aid in Pamela’s parent’s garage for distribution at a later date
because of our limited time there, and then said our ‘Goodbyes’ to that part of
the village. We left ‘Robin Hood’ and
all travelled in ‘Little John’ to distribute the rest of the aid to the other
side of the village.
The
night drew in very quickly and it was extremely hard to see what were doing in
the back of the lorry when were distributing the Aid. We finished in the pouring rain, cold dark conditions at 6pm and
were very pleased to accept the offer of a
‘Pivo with the President’.
However, when we arrived he was out, but his wife, son and friends made us
welcome. Their home was nice, although
it was a very strange set up to get to the toilet - I had to go outside,
through someone else’s living room, where they were watching TV, to the WC, and
then back!
We
drove back to Beli Manastir and went quickly to the pub to see Nada (Mike had
promised at Easter to bring her a ‘Chanel’ lipstick), unfortunately she wasn’t
there, but it gave me the opportunity to carry on the conversation with Branie
about Peanuts!! I was a bit mean, but it was hilarious!
Rushed
back to Marijan's and changed for the party, which was held at the ‘Environmental
Issues’ office (all 15 of us!). It was
certainly different and very kind of them to lay it on, as a way of saying
thanks. The wives had made a buffet for
us and provided orange squash. Marijan
gave a speech that was very touching and then we played games. It was one of those - you had to be there
scenarios, ‘Croatian Cat’ followed by ‘Miss Marple’ which was funny in it’s own
way?! We said our 'thank yous' and got
back to Marijan’s at 11pm – we sat up with Marijan and Mira for a while then
crashed out - again!
At
7am we were up and out, sorting out the chaos of the lorries from yesterday –
it was another grey, damp drizzly day and we were on the road by 8.15am to
Petlovac, under the low bridges again!
In
order to reach Vukovar and the Bosnian border, we needed to depart from Beli
Manastir by lunchtime. We worked very
hard distributing Aid to many families and people. One old lady that we will all remember is the lady with only one
leg. An amazing person, coping extremely well by using a stick for her false
leg and a broom as a crutch. Still she
had a smile on her face, even more so when we finished loading her wheelbarrow
and supplying her with new clothes.
Other activities of the morning included a large swig of Slivo which was
very warming, Teddies for Tragedies which were given out to people, blankets,
tools that went like hot-cakes and a young lady who looked sad, tired and cold.
She was lifted when we gave her a lot of stuff including Baby Wipes, and she
was then chauffeured home on her own bicycle by Chas – I don’t know who enjoyed
it more! There was also a blind man’s wife who came out wearing a dressing
gown, worn as a coat, and had a lovely beamer, encouraged by Mike.
Then
there was the school visit, which we did at mid-day. After unloading goods into their store with the help of the
pupils, we went inside and gave every pupil a teddy and a selection of
chocolate, which was really nice.
Drove
back to Beli Manastir, but first visited Vlah (our old Serb lady from before,
for whom we’d left money to have her walls repaired). We were greeted by tears.
It could have easily been five months ago that we saw her - she wore the
same clothes despite the drop in temperature.
The real difference was her house walls which were now solid (Pamela’s brother and father had repaired
them in the summer and had done a great job).
Her house was warmer and we gave her boxes of utensils for the home,
blankets, food and toiletries. We
couldn’t stay long, as we needed to get Pamela on her bus back to Zagreb. However, it was lovely to see her again and
to see that her living conditions had improved.
We
just got Pamela to the bus station in time and literally stopped the bus from
departing by pulling up in front of it!
- very quick goodbyes and then back to Marijan's. We loaded up the lorries and arranged to
meet Mike and Jeff at Branie’s house at 2pm.
Mira had cooked a huge chicken dinner, and we couldn’t say no
(especially kind as they are vegetarian) and Chas does have a problem with the
word ‘no’ not sure if it is the 'N' or the 'O'?
Chas’
friend from before arrived on the doorstep (he was a young boy who had been
orphaned and was slightly backward), we felt awful because we had nothing for
him immediately and asked him to go and see Marijan the next day for warm
clothes etc. Vahacula had brought over
biscuits for us and Mira gave us a doggy bag for the journey. Rushed through it and said goodbye, then off
to Branie's.
Mike
and Jeff had refused dinner and were waiting, with their take away
pancakes. They went to see Nada, whilst
Chas and I went to see Rosa and the orphans.
Rosa wanted us to go in for dinner, but we explained we couldn’t stay and
said our goodbyes, not forgetting another Mars Bar each, and then off we went to
meet Mike and Jeff. Nada looked great
in her ‘Chanel’ lipstick.
We
were now off towards Vukovar – well that was the plan – but we did have one or
two hitches - ‘Little John’ wouldn’t start, and not knowing they weren’t behind
us, we lost them. We went back, and as
we got there, they managed to start the lorry. Eventually we got going, and
drove to the outskirts of Beli Manastir, where we said goodbye to Branie. Drove as quickly as we could because we were
against time to get to Vukovar in daylight so Jeff could take some good
photos. Unfortunately, it was dark by
the time we arrived. Jeff did a couple
of shots and I was in charge of lighting! Chas was off finding mine-tape, which
didn’t take long, sadly.
Then
the old trick of moving the lorry as Mike was using it for cover from the busy
road whilst answering the call of nature. Jeff supplied spotlights much to
Mike’s embarrassment! Stopped at an
off-licence for supplies, then a quick pancake stop, and drove across to the
Bosnian border at about 7pm. Arrived at
a closed border - luckily Jeff can speak German and it was invaluable on the
trip. Apparently it was due to re-open
first thing in the morning. My last
impression of Croatia that night was very dark, wet, army bases, masses of
barbed wire, lots of shelled houses and a cafe in the middle of nowhere.
We
decided to drive back to Ocucani as we had spotted a few bars, and parked
outside one with an outdoor lino dance floor!
Our first activity was a couple of beers, then back to our lorry for
dinner - German Sausage to start, followed by Steak, mushrooms, mashed potato,
apricot brandy and Pivo! - had a good night, a few too many Apricot Brandies
(we started and finished a litre bottle).
Needless to say it was a very late night!
We
were up, again early, and straight over to the pub for a coffee and the use of
their facilities. The weather had
turned really cold and the offer of Jeff’s long johns couldn’t be turned down.
They stayed on me for the rest of the trip!
(and she has the cheek to have a go about my domestic habits…….Robin Hood’) Had breakfast on the back
of the lorries, then drove back to the border.
Passed many bomb-damaged buildings.
One house that really stood out had been badly shelled, and cows were now
using it as a barn. On the pavement
outside was a Croatian message with the date 28/06/92, and opposite were two
graves - one we could read was 1962-1995 Vinko Lubick, the other we couldn’t
see the date of, but it was a person named Saliko Cavalic, both had fresh
flowers on them.
On
arrival back at the border it was still closed for essential repairs, so we
were forced to use the car crossing.
Border control thought we would be fine as we were travelling across
empty. However, I was driving down to
the Platoon Bridge and as we moved onto it, we grounded and got completely
stuck and wedged in.
Jeff
and Chas had to jack up the lorry and packed up the wheels with wood to move
us. In ‘Little Johns’ case we packed up the wood first. The Hungarian Army and local fishing men and
Russians were really helpful. Once
across the bridge we were in Bosnia, greeted by SFOR tanks – which I found
quite scary, they were there waiting for something to happen, or to prevent anything
from happening.
We
planned to follow the SFOR route that consisted of:
Gradiska (GULL), Prijedor (PEGASUS), Banja Luka (GULL), Krupa (GULL), Mrkonjic Grad (HORNBLOWER).
We
started off on route ‘GULL’ down to the bus depot at Mk.Grad. The damaged buildings were continuous along
the road, and we saw loads of pigs. I
was feeling cream-crackered and slept for a while, missing Mike trying to take
out the locals with their assistance - digger incident. Awoke in Prijedor - a
large town, where on a previous trip, I subsequently learned that Michael Kelly
had been beaten up in the police station and retained over night for no
apparent reason.
We
had somehow taken the wrong road and now followed signs for Banja Luka, (mostly
in Cyrillic alphabet). We arrived in
Banja Luka (a large, busy town with huge piles of cabbages on sale) eating
snacks en-route to save arriving late morning.
The road down to Mrkonjic Grad was very whindy, boasting spectacular
scenery all the way. There was also
quite a bit of snow building up. We
eventually arrived at the bus depot (SFOR base) at 2.30pm. The base was fascinating. Chas and Mike went off to meet Colonel
McDonald, and we saw ‘Cookham’ they had just arrived back from working alone in
Banja Luka.
Our
first call after finding Colonel McDonald was into the naffie for coffees, and
then we met Alex, an interpreter, who was to be with us that afternoon. After a bit of pushing, we were allowed to
go out to see if we could help anyone in the direct vacinity of the base with a
painting project. ‘Little John’ was
still experiencing trouble starting so Chas and I went off to see the Chief,
who was quite negative about our proposed actions because of the wet
weather. However, he did point us in
the direction of a family needing help.
We went back to base and found ‘Little John’ up and running, so we were
able to take both lorries. We had to
drive up a very dodgy mud track, over a narrow bridge and found a road that was
impassable, so we had to back up, and travelled the remainder of the journey on
foot. It was raining hard. One of the neighbours, of the family in
need, showed us the way. She looked
frozen and wet through.
At
the house at the top of a hill, the inside decor wasn’t too bad and didn’t
really need a coat of paint, however, they had a few missing windows, so we
went back to the lorry for sheeting, tools, clothes etc. Jeff and I went ahead with Alex whilst Mike
and Chas went to see the neighbour. Her
house looked appalling and far worse than the family we had been led to.
Jeff
and I had coffee and Slivo with the family and the man explained, through Alex,
that he really wanted a job and brought out all his documents confirming that
he was a painter and carpenter. Jeff
left him the sheeting and tools and we gave the children a teddy each and some
chocolate and then went down to the neighbour’s house. The man from the original house followed as
we had said we would give him some paint, and Jeff gave him all his
personal tools, so that he would have the chance to earn some income in the
short-term. He was extremely grateful
and took his wheelbarrow home full.
The
neighbour let us in and her two children were there. It was in very poor
condition. Alex explained that they were renting from a Muslim family and were
being forced to move in the New Year, but had no-where to go. It was a hard decision, but we decided that
painting it wouldn’t help them, instead they needed food and money. As she was showing us round her home we
entered the back room where her husband lay comatosed on the settee. We went back into the hall and were
discussing what we could do to help.
The husband went ballistic at her and shut the door. We all felt really awful and to blame for
the incident. Alex told us to leave,
but we really didn’t want to leave her and the children. Then the husband came up and told us in no
uncertain terms to go, so we did.
We
felt we couldn’t leave without doing something and feared for the woman and her
children’s safety (statistics show that one in three women are abused either
mentally or physically in Bosnia).
Apparently the husband suffered from schizophrenia and drank a lot. They couldn’t afford for him to get medical
treatment and it was a vicious circle.
We sorted out some chocolate for the children, and some food, and Jeff
gave another fleece for the lady. We left all these things, together with an
envelope that contained some money and a note of apology, with a neighbour who
seemed to be a concerned friend.
It
was now 6pm; we were all tired, upset and wet, so we went straight back to the
SFOR base to see if the others were back.
Met Dawn and Tom (‘Busby’) in the shop, had a coffee and caught up on
the past few day’s activities (quite a lot in one way or another)! Showered (bliss) changed and got ready for
dinner. It was great to see everyone,
although a few were staying away in villages.
Dawn, Tom, Jeff, Mike, Chas and I went down to ‘The Foresters’, the
local pub for a few drinks. Two
interpreters joined us (they too worked
for SFOR) as well as ‘Pierre the Aviator’ or was that Tom?
We
had a good evening, ending with Cherry Brandy at the pub, and then decided we
would see if we could get into the Officers Mess (they had M.P’s over from the
UK, so we had been asked not to go too
early). We were let in and we finished
off the wine, Alex and Vladimir (the two interpreters) joined us too.
I
was speaking to Alex for a while; it was very interesting and moving what he
thought about the current situation. He
was a Serb, married with a child.
Before the war he worked as an Air Traffic Controller earning 3,000 DM
per month, now he has a ‘good’ job and earns 1,200 DM per month. It was very sad, like most people he had
lost family and friends in the war and didn’t think they had gained anything
from it. Instead he thought that the ethnic rivalry was, if anything, worse in
many areas now, with people resenting what had happened to them.
Wandered
off to bed around 2am - after a sneaky look at the tanks (tractors) on the way!
Up
at 7am and had a cooked breakfast on the base.
‘Cookham’ left this morning. We
advised them about the bridge and said not to cross there, because although we
had been helped across, the border guards wouldn’t appreciate another queue of
traffic if it were to happen again.
All
of us then went up to a village, high up on the ridge opposite the SFOR
base. It was really snowing hard now,
and the driving conditions were bad with a dangerous climb on the side of the
hill on track roads. At the top we
huddled together in the school that they were rebuilding, whilst Michael went
with SFOR to check on the road conditions in the village. While he was gone, we spoke to the
president, with Alex’s help, to see if we could help anyone with re-decoration. He pointed us in the direction of two
houses, but on arrival we felt we had seen worse and they were not in desperate
need.
We
decided to help ‘Busby’ with the distribution of food. Michael said there were a few tracks we
could go on, however, SFOR jeeps would accompany us to get food up to families
beyond a certain point.
The
previous day Tom and Dawn had been to a local market and bought loads of fresh
vegetables - cabbage, onions and potatoes - we divided these into trays for
easy distribution. Alex explained that
one tray, (consisted of 3 cabbages, potatoes, onions and a bag of rice) would
last a family for at least two weeks.
Chas
went with the first SFOR jeep and discovered a desperately poor family, who
were living in a barn. Without ‘much a
do’ we went for it, giving ourselves a time-limit and achievable targets, and
headed up to them armed with paint, brushes, etc.
The
man of the house had lost his father three weeks previously. The house had been completely bombed in the
war and they were forced to live in the barn, whilst they gradually made
repairs to their house (they had a long way to go). Jeff, Chas and I painted their ‘bedroom’ (well two walls, as the
other walls were covered with sheets of plastic). Meanwhile, Mike went back to the lorry to sort out some goods for
them, he arrived back just as we had finished - bringing with him a homemade
apple pie, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Said
goodbye to ‘Busby’ then headed back to the bus depot for a quick change of
clothes (we were all soaked through to the skin). Had some lunch and visited
the CD shop - amazing prices!
Because
of weather and crossing into Bosnia we decided to go back via BIHAC following SFOR route back:
Mk Grad – Kljuc (BLUEBIRD), Bos Petrovac (BLUEBIRD) to BiHac. Then LESLEY across the border.
The drive was fantastic, amazing scenery with a continual change in weather - snow, sleet, sun, fog, and mist. We drove through and above clouds and saw a rainbow, sticking firmly to the SFOR routes with a few U-turns thrown in. ‘Robin Hood’ got stopped by the Police for speeding, but they were fine about it, luckily we changed our tacko earlier that day. Passed a refugee camp and crashed aeroplane.
As we approached the Croatian border crossing we were hit by snow blizzards which continued to worsen. The only joy was that as a consequence of the snow and dreadful cold, the border guards wouldn’t step outside their huts, and so we just sailed through. The snow fell at an incredible rate, so much so, that Jeff and Mike couldn’t see our tyre tracks, even though they were directly behind us. As we approached a hill just after the border, there were two thirty-eight tonne vehicles blocking the road. We therefore had to stop too. One had got stuck going up and the other was trying to overtake. It was scary stuff seeing them creep up a bit and then slide back. Eventually they made it and it was our turn.
We couldn’t move, because the snow that had been rolling along at the front of our wheels had now frozen into blocks. When we started to try, the front of our lorry swung out into the centre of the road, and all of a sudden, two huge lorries passed us going up the hill, each smashed into the wing mirror, shattering it as they ploughed on up the hill. Mike appeared with a shovel, seemingly out of nowhere (he had been keeping it down the back of the driver’s seat - just in case!) dug us out, and off we went. We waited at the top for ‘Little John’. They too had to do the same, although poor Mike didn’t have time to get back into the lorry before Jeff moved. Hanging onto the side of the vehicle, he travelled up the road, in a blizzard, holding onto the wing mirror with his bare hands, and for extra grip the windscreen wipers - that was until Jeff turned them on!
Made our way treacherously through the weather to the nearest garage, where Jeff fixed their wipers and we filled up with diesel. Decided to travel to Zagreb if we could.
Arrived
in Zagreb at Natasha’s around 10.30pm - still snowing. They made us very welcome. Natasha looked really well and had put on a
little weight. Tomaslav was fine too;
Branka and Marion real stars and I don’t know how they cope. Andelka was doing really well, although
exhausted from work. Branka cooked for
us, Pivo was provided and Anna came across.
Even Pluto seemed pleased to see us all.
We
were all concerned about the prediction of falling snow, which was already one
metre deep, according to the TV. We were all too tired to drive any further so
thought we would sort out the logistics in the morning. Mike and Jeff stayed at
Motel Zagreb (who by the way are now missing a towel - Jeff does seem to like
the odd towel or two!) and Marion led the way for them, whilst taking Anna
home. All very tired. Chas and I stayed with Andelka.
Up
early(ish) for breakfast with Andelka’s mother and brother. Unfortunately Andelka had to go to work, so
we didn’t see her again. I was up first
and was faced with an array of drinks on the kitchen table: Tea, Freshly
squeezed fruit juice and Slivo.
Then
we went over to Natasha’s for a full breakfast, which was lovely. Spent the next hour making calls -the TV had
broadcast that Slovenia wasn’t letting any trucks into the country because of
the heavy snow, Natasha was on the case.
Chas called the SFOR base to warn the others and also to get an accurate
weather forecast, but had no luck. However, thanks to Maggie back in the UK, we
obtained a specific weather prediction direct from the top weather people in
the UK (which was much more accurate!). We then went over to meet Mike and Jeff
at the Hotel and after deciding to try and make a run for it, we planned our
‘exit’ route. Travelled back to
Natasha’s, then straight out to see Maggie at the school/hostel where she stays
on the other side of Zagreb. Jeff tried to get our CB to work, again! This time local youths had stolen our UK
Flag, and had cut the aerial wire.
At
the school, Maggie was waiting for Chas by the entrance and was obviously
delighted to see him, and him her. She
looked really well and had been practising walking making huge progress; she
was also on very good form. Because of
our lack of time and Branka’s invite to her and Danny to go over to Natasha’s,
we didn’t stay too long. We went to her
room and then she proudly showed us the stage where she acts as an angel during
the Christmas shows.
Back
to Natasha’s house. Because there were
so many of us travelling back, Jeff and I sat in the back of the lorry on the
floor, it was actually really nice to have time for a chat, we didn’t seem to
have done that before.
Got
back and Andelka’s mother was there to see us, we stayed for a few minutes,
then had to leave. By now it was already 3pm.
Andelka’s mother gave us all presents consisting of Slivo, Pivo, Dried
Figs and Croatian Chocolate. Maggie
hoped we couldn’t get through and would be back in Zagreb that evening! It would have been nice to see them for
longer, but we couldn’t risk it, so off we went. Drove down to Slovenia, through and into Austria. The TV snow
predictions had turned out to be nonsense! (Or was it that Andelka was being
mischevious?) At the Austrian border
they went through every bag we had, even questioning about Mike’s 400
cigarettes; we were all worried about Dawn’s 2000 (going to sell them on her
return to raise funds for Hope and Aid Direct) and hoped she had them well
hidden. We called ‘Showman’ to warn them.
Luckily they never found our CDs.
Back
to driving through all those tunnels again (and I seemed to be driving!) passed
Hamburger Hill at approx. 9pm and we started looking for accommodation for the
night. The drive through Austria was beautiful even in the dark with snow
covering the mountains, trees etc.
By
pure luck we found a lovely Guest House in Micheldorf, Kremstal at 10.30pm, the
owner made up two rooms for us (which were lovely) and said we were welcome to
have dinner - this was enough for Jeff and I - didn’t care about the price of
it! Parked lorries, had a quick wash
and then went down for dinner. Had a
pint of lager, Liver and Dumpling consommé followed by German Sausage, chips
and Salad, and a few bottles of red wine.
Then the locals joined us for a bit of a singsong. Passed out in bed around 2am.
Woke
around 8am, showered, and down for breakfast.
Discovered the only downside to the guesthouse, it was next to an
abattoir, and you could hear it!
Settled our bill at the pricely sum of
£35 per person! Went for a
stroll around the town, such a gorgeous setting, snowing to-boot. Left around 11am and trucked through
Austria, leisurely, by comparison to previous days until we had a call from
Michael, “Red Herring” had broken down and he needed the RAC cover
details. They were just outside
Wurzburg . Foot down all the way until
we got there. Meanwhile, another call
from Michael now at the Services at Dettelbach. We arrived and they had been there for seven hours, in which time
Michael had established that the vehicle was now deceased, he had contacted a
local Rotarian who was going to try and sell the vehicle, and by chance he
happened to be a Mercedes Benz dealer!
Heard
then, that ‘Cookham’ had gone back over the pontoon bridge and had experienced
the same troubles as we had on the way down to Bosnia from Croatia, causing a
major hold up of traffic.
Stripped
‘Red Herrings’ of tax disc, number plates etc. and were back on the move
again. We had Mark travelling with us
and Rob went with ‘Busby’. We all kept
going until about 7.30pm in the original convoy. ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Didcot’ then split from the others to take a
more leisurely pace. The others drove
straight through the night to the UK without stopping.
Chas
and I stopped for ‘dinner’ at the services and decided that we would carry on
for a couple of hours. Meanwhile
‘Didcot’ booked into a motel. Stopped
for a night’s kip in the lorry about 2 hours further on. Snowing and freezing.
Awoke
to snow at 8.30am! Had a greasy fry-up and then got going. Had planned to shower, but it was too
frigging cold! There was a huge
traffic jam down the Autobahn, where we passed ‘Didcot’, made contact on the CB
and travelled back together. Took a
wrong turn at Aachen and went a slightly different route – “Storer’s Mystery
Tours”, however, he did produce a bunch of flowers - must be the only Trucker
to have some flowers in a vase, well ‘Evian’ bottle taped to the dashboard!
Back
on track for a while and then we got lost in Belgium, well if they will call
Liege Luick it can’t be helped, especially when I am navigating! Down through Maastricht, it was terrible
weather all the way to Lille and beyond.
At which point we were on red again on the fuel meter and came off at
Armentieres experiencing a deja-vu feeling from Easter.
After
stocking up on wine and beer caught the 6pm ferry across to Calais and then
home all the way!
Points:
·
Dobrilla, Branie’s sister aspires to being a shop assistant, can’t get
job because of her name.
CB Language for the Trip:
Scruffy Babe
Middle & Working Class
Roy Orbisons
Muscadet de Cadinet