Day Five Wednesday More Medals, Even Better Panoramic Views and a Jamming Session

Day five and we had our first rains last night; we get up to a misty and fresh day. Jack (one half of Bulldogs) earned his first two medals last night. The first for walking through the wrong door into the hotel kitchen rather than the door to the outside and the second for disputing the medal and saying that the medal system is a load of rubbish I am still currently leading the medal table but Sean (The Simpsons) is coming up fast and collecting medals by the hatful. The competition ends Saturday night when the grand winner will be announced.

We set off and very quickly are surrounded by the Carpathian Mountain Range, we get little glimpses of the enormity and beauty of these ranges as the mist slowly clears. They are enormous (where we are some of the highest peaks exceed 2,500 m (8,202 ft)).and make the mountains in the UK look like little pimples. We are hoping that the weather is a lot clearer on the way back so that we can see the mountains fully and get some stunning photographs.

We hit a couple of main towns today and that means some proper navigation again. Communication is vital through the town as instructions are coming thick and fast and being passed down the line. Lefts and rights at the light, which exit to take off the roundabouts also what the name of the next town is that we are heading to and the correct road number that we need to be on. All this has been made possible with the generous donation of a full set of 13 brand new radios from BT which was secured just before this convoy started and we have tested them to the full and they work a treat. Well done to the CWUHA representatives and BT for sorting out this vital piece of convoy equipment.

The feud with the Proclaimers has ended today; peace negotiations have been on-going since the lollipop knifepoint incident and diplomatic relations have improved. Today at the rest stop there was an exchange of sweets between the two parties (humbug lollipops, Wurthers originals and sherbets lemons). All past misunderstandings have been forgotten and in a joint statement by both parties they stated that they look forward to a long and pleasant partnership.

We come to a stop for our meal break on a patch of wasteland next to a petrol station. The backdrop to this meal break is the lovely mountain scenery (see pictures below).

As we wait for our food to cook we start to hear the gentle sounds of Irish music and at first think that one of the Irish wagons has left their music playing. But we very quickly realise that it is not that but is in fact Micheal (Flintstones) playing a live jamming session with David (Shinybeast). We all gather around and listen to the gentle music as our food cooks with glorious scenery behind us. (It is very hard this convoy lark). We are going to try to persuade Michael to play some more, especially on Saturday night when we are due to have our convoy meal.

After this rest stop we head of into the misty mountains, the weather has changed considerably from 28 degrees and glorious sunshine at the rest stop to 12 degrees and raining five minutes later in the mountains. The plus side to this change in the weather is the views and the driving experience; we are both in the best positions in the cab for this experience. Ray is the passenger and has is camera out and is snapping away to his heart’s content. I am in the driver’s seat and enjoying driving these wonderful roads (pot holes permitting) including hair pin bends and long downhill stretches through the forest. It’s like a gentle Sunday drive, none of them boring motorways here.

We finally arrive at our hotel for the night and find to our delight that it has its very own Irish bar, the place was packed. The only two things that were Irish was a flag on the wall and the Guinness in the pumps, that is until we arrived with our Irish friends and suddenly it really was an authentic Irish bar.

That’s all folks see ya later

Paul (one half of the big boppers)