Day Twelve Wednesday The Van Waltz, The Sick Note and Abdul’s Thoughts

We go down for breakfast and provisions are in keeping with the standard of the hotel. We have meagre pickings of fresh fruit including Strawberries, pate and cheese, five different types of bread, eggs and omelettes freshly cooked, bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms as well as hot tea and coffee (you don’t believe me when I say that convoy is hard work). A lot of convoy drivers take this opportunity to stock up on provisions for the day; they come down with sandwich bags and squirrel away bread, sandwiches, fruit or cakes to keep them fed throughout the day.

We are all in our wagons and ready to roll when the directions are relayed that we are turning left onto a dual carriageway to exit the hotel. This is nigh on impossible at this time in the morning some make it out left but others opt to go right and see if they can turn around at a roundabout or at a less busy junction. As we all head off in different directions you suddenly see vans appearing on a flyover above you, coming down the road in the opposite direction or on side streets turning around. It looks like chaos but it is well controlled and all drivers find safe places to turn around and get back on the same piece of road. Once again the radios become invaluable for this to help the less experienced drivers out. The biggest confusion is which vehicle is which, the two Irish vehicles are easy to spot and identify, there are two BT vehicles so they are not too difficult but there are six Royal Mail vehicles in the same livery with similar number plates.  It leads to a lot of confusion even though some of the vehicles are flying their countries flags, Scottish, Welsh and, English flags are the best way to identify which vehicle you should be behind (that and some of the slogans on the back of the vehicles can still be read from the Moldovan border)

We switch countries from Romania to Hungary and as there is a long queue at the channel for the trucks to go through we nip into the car lane which is empty. We do this because we are now empty so all it usually takes is a quick look in the back by customs officials and off we go (sometimes cuddly toys and sweets are used to help this along). We sail through customs and didn’t even need to part with any sweets or teddies. Then it’s a quick stop to pay the tolls for another country, these are a major outlay for the charity (don’t forget this is for ten vehicles), some countries will give us the money back afterwards but most will not.

W travel through Hungary and it is back to the single carriageway crazy roads, as we trundle along at 56mph cars are nipping in at every opportunity to overtake us and get on by. You get used to it by now but you must keep your wits about you at all times. We eventually hit the Motorway in Hungary (that’s it now its Motorways most of the way back to the UK now) and we recognise where we are we are just up the road from the Owl Hotel. It’s a simple decision to make and we stay the night in the Owl. That evening Michael (Flintstones) nearly completed his set by having played his music in every country except Holland (hopefully that will be rectified on Friday), he gives us a wonderful rendition of The Sick Note which has us all rolling about with laughter. We should have Michael on every convoy for the value of raising spirits.

Finally today a few words from one of our convoy virgins, Abdul (one half of Shinybeast). This is my first convoy and I have to say I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. The whole purpose was to bring a smile to the faces of the children and we did that. To know that these kids know the problems and deformities they have but still their smile is there for all to see. I hope this isn’t my last convoy it has been the best twenty days of my life (thanks to Abdul Raheem Kalifah, CWU Watford No.1 Branch for these lovely words.

Catch ya later

Paul (one half of the big boppers)