Wednesday 17th September. Day 13.

Day 13. Hopes of a shorter days drive were dashed this morning when we had to queue for 15 minutes just to get out of the hotel ! We then spent the next 3 hours crawling a few yards forward and then standing stationery for 20 minutes. Eventually we got to the source of the tailback – a 200 m stretch of roadworks!!!

We them ploughed on towards the border until we got to within about 4kms at which point we pulled up behind a long line of stationary Lorries all with engines switched off. There are so many Lorries approaching the border that they are stopped by police a few kilometres away and then allowed to proceed a few at a time a bit closer where they are then stopped and the process repeated. We could easily have been there all day or more. We therefore decided to just overtake all the stopped vehicles and if we got stopped by the police plead ‘humanitarian aid’ and hope for the best.

There was just one problem the road was only one lane each way so we had no choice but to go down the wrong way and hope to find a gap to pull into when someone came the opposite way. We set of one at a time at one minute intervals as soon as we could see a gap in the oncoming traffic. Our turn came so off we went. We got past about 30 Lorries before we saw a big artic coming towards us. We managed to find a gap where we waited until the coast was clear and then carried on. Theme park rides will never seem scary again. Fortunately the Humanitarian card worked with the police and after our wagon passed them he stopped the oncoming traffic so the rest of the convoy could get through without having anything coming the opposite way. We then repeated the process a couple more times as we got nearer the border and then we were all there safe and unscathed.

Our wagons were searched by customs on both sides of the border and then we were off and into Hungary with great celebrations all round! After another half an hour we were on the M5 motorway and the worst of the roads are now well and truly behind us.

We carried on up to Budapest and pulled into the same place we stayed at last week where the food wagon got stuck in a field.

We now hope to get to Bruges for Friday night ready for the ferry on Saturday teatime.

As for Alex and John, they are now hoping to leave tomorrow if the replacement spare part arrives and is fitted in time. If not they will have to fly home and arrangements will have to be made to collect the wagon at a later date. Unfortunately although it would probably be cheaper to scrap it than repair it and drive it all the way back but that is not an option as if it were scrapped in Bulgaria it would then be liable for import duty levied at the value of a new replacement vehicle!!

I’ll let you know tomorrow if we manage to cross Hungary, Austria and into Germany as planned.

P