CWUHA / Simpson Millar Aid Convoy Bulgaria 2009

Thursday, 10th of September 2009.

2009-09-14T09:12:00.001+01:00

Today our aim was to delivery aid to the local Vidin Hospital, which was 15 minute walk and 4 lads went to go pick there wagons up as they had the aid for this hospital.

We got to the hospital and it looked like a block of run down apartments from the outside, the hospital had been built in 1942 and had not been updated since then.

The wagons then arrive and we started to unload the cargo, mainly medical item such has incubators and stretchers etc. The incubator had only been in for a short time before I little was place into it.

That goes to show how they needed it, I saw they current incubator and it like some thing from the Ark.

We then finished up there before walking back to the hotel, from here a minibus was waiting to take my self and Amanda to pick up our wagon, the next stop the mental disabled Orphanage in KUla which was 200KM.

It took two hours to get to the orphanage, straight away we started unloading, and we all had a system of people chain which was very efficient.

The facility was not that bad needed some items sorting but OK, I meet some of the children and it was sad to see them not wanted but they were happy soles.

We then were asked to visit the second orphanage across town. As soon as you walked through the door I was hit by an indescribable smell, I then joined everyone in the hall with the children I can't explain what I saw, as they say a picture says 1000 words and how These children were living and knowing the fact that they had no one to care for them. there was one child lying in the middle of the hall, lifeless, no movement. I found out that his mother had raised him to 12 years of age then decided to go off to live in Florida and leave him, he was now 15. How can she live with herself that's all I can say?

I had to leave I couldn't fight the choke in the through any longer, a big guy like me getting upset that shows you what is going on in reality with these children. Everyone was upset with what we had seen.

I now have to live with these memories which still upset me when thinking about it.

Wednesday, 9th of September 2009

2009-09-14T09:09:00.000+01:00

Set off at 07:30 and our aim today was the Bulgarian border. Myself and Amanda had to face the next big challenge, mountain driving but no ordinary mountain driving the roads had no crash barriers and had pot holes bigger than the moons craters and best of it was we had to deal with articulated wagons over taking up hill on blind corners, we called them kamikazes

Amanda did the fist part of the mountain driving them I took over you won’t believe how tiring it was, you could also see the unlucky people who didn't make it was the mountain bottom was full off trucks that had gone over.

We then came out of the mountains which had stunning views and came back to earth and enjoyed the vast plains of Romania which you could see for miles sometimes we past vast lakes which were breathtaking.

It's also amazing how many stray dogs there are, just roaming free but with that it's very sad and also dangerous as they have been attacking young children.

We went through many Romanian villages and through out sweets and soft toys as we were driving past children. After a few hour driving we got to the town of Calafat which was on the Dunav river. We arrived at the ferry terminal around 1730 and had to go through customs and had to pay for the wagons 60 euros. The flat bed ferry did not arrive until 19:45. I drove onto the ferry which was precarious as I had to line the wheels with ramp other wise I would be swimming to the other side.

The crossing took 20 minutes to get to the other side which was now Bulgaria. we then ran into problems with customs and we found out that the convoy was a day early which meant that we had to pay again the person tax of 20 euro's and their road tax of 50 euro's. It was now dark; we don't normally drive at night as it has many problems,

it took 20 minutes for us to get through, parked up and waited for the rest to get through which took another 15 minutes. At this point we all were tired and fed up.

Our hotel was in the centre of viddin but trucks were not allowed in the centre so we had to park in a truck stop outside the town and then get a taxi to the hotel.

Tuesday. 8th of September 2009.

2009-09-14T08:52:00.000+01:00

Left Hotel around 0800 and it was my turn to driving, I prefer morning driving. It didn't look promising when our convoy leader went wrong which was quite funny.

We had about 150KM before the motorway ended and I had to the most challenging and stressful part of the convoy driving on small roads with groves in the tarmac caused by overloaded Lorries which damaged the road, Had to keep the wheels in line with these groves or the wagon could topple over not only this I had to drive through the

Busy City of Szeged and then later Arad, it is very difficult to keep in a convoy with traffic lights, crazy drivers, people and just general city driving.

After getting out of that place I put me foot down to catch up.
We then stopped to refresh and change drivers, Amanda then drove for a further hour before we hit the Romanian border. From here we had to stop to get our road tax stickers which go on the windscreen and getting rid of a beggar trying to sell a piece of wood for 10 Euros.

After 30 minutes we then carried on, Romanian is under going a major infrastructure revamp, as peter described in the last blog the roads were not to crack last year but this year the roads have been repaired

But with this comes lost of road works and traffic.

We then had to drive through another City, Timisoara, this time Amanda was driving and I was map reading and follow CB radio directions (thank god for CB radio's)

We then stopped in a Romanian village because we were 4 hours behind our chuck wagon (the chuck wagon also is our scout vehicle to seek out accommodation) and it was 2000 we decided to stay in there local hotel

It then took use a further our to park all 10 wagon in a small road side car park which was difficult as the main road was very busy.

Monday, 7th of September 2009

2009-09-14T08:35:00.001+01:00

The day went relatively smooth with no breakdowns or police stops just went straight through the remainder of Austria can't really tell you more you all know what motorway driving is like, we then hit the Hungarian border around 1600 before getting to our hotel about 1900.

The Hotel was very nice and had two very large lakes to walk around which was very stunning and gently lit by the setting sun.

Sunday, 6th of September 2009

2009-09-08T13:32:00.002+01:00

Got up at a reasonable time of 7:15 local time (Germany is an hour in front to the UK) a very fresh start.

Our picked departure time was 8:30 but had to load the cases and refuel the truck within this time.

Also found out that one of the older drivers hit a bolder when reversing and ripped the front bumper off, you see not just me

We then hit the Motorway again and had to listen to Amanda sing!! (thank god for cotten wool) then played I Spy over the CB Radio, very entertaining and then Guess that tune!

It was all going well until a police car came past our wagon (yes i was driving) and started to check us out, (not good) he speed off to the front off the convoy and put his lights on to pull over!

He made us pull into the smallest lay-by just fit all 10 wagons in, the copper went to the convoy leading wagon and asked what is in the trucks, the manifest was shown and he let us go.

Seems like the police over in Germany have nothing better to do just like in the UK.

We then carried on our way only to be stopped again but this time on the German/Austrian Border we pulled into a lay-by again but this time we had a pretty boy who i tell you needed to learn how to use an iron scruffy git, was telling us two wagons looked over loaded.

Two of the wagons had to go to a police weigh bridge to be weighed but later on we found out the wagons where in fact legal. we stayed in the lay-by for a cuppa and buns then set off again around 18:00.

We made it to our Hotel around 19:45 but got lost in an Austrain town, Austians take town driving to another level believe me with the strange road sign and signals

Saturday, 5th of September 2009.

2009-09-08T13:30:00.005+01:00

We docked at 10am and were back in the truck hold waiting to drive and start the second leg of the journey. We were finally let off when went through passport control with no problems. The actual challenge was driving on the wrong side of the road, it was very strange going around a roundabout anticlock wise.

After getting out of amsterdam it was Motorway driving from there, our aim was frankfurt before the end of the day, but you can't go with out having a problem, one of our wagons reported loss of power over the CB.

We pull over at the next services and wait while it is repaired.

Hit the road again for about 30 minutes before was took over a petrol station to refuel, God knows what they thought when they saw 10 wagons all in a line coming in.

Drove for another hour before we stopped again, Our chuck wagon (food wagon) goes far in front to choose a services to setup and cook food. On the menu was corned beef and cheese sandwhiches.

Amanda then took over from me with the driving. Our convoy leaders wagon later on broke down but the rest of us carried on.

Our day target was to reach frankfurt which we did around 20:15 local time, we are now ahead of schedule, we stayed in a Motorway Motel.

We had to park the trucks in a very small car park, which brought it's problems as when i was parking up i scrapped an Audi with the back end of my truck but with the special power of baby wipes wiped away the evidance aka the red paint from my truck
Everyone just laughed as all wagon drivers at some point have to hit some thing.

Friday, 4th of September 2009

2009-09-08T13:28:00.004+01:00

Today was Amanda's turn to drive which i was very worried about as she hadn't driven a wagon in 3 years and didn't know how to reverse which would mean if we had to reverse i would have to do it.

Made our way to the Gateshead office in heavy rain again, to pick more items up. We then had to meet Katie and Joanna who were coming from Glasow and met at the Newcastle Royal mail depot to collect our Fuel cards.

We had to sit there for two hours waiting for a courier to deliver them.

We had to leave at 2pm as our ferry left at 5pm and newcastle is shocking for traffic. We set off at 2:05 got out of the depot and the courier drives past.

Fuel Cards Wahoo!!!!

Got to the ferry teminal were the rest of the convoy were waiting and had a chance to sort the goods out and go through documentation.

I drove the wagon aboard which was quite scary.

We were then given our cabin keys, i picked cabin 255 and Amanda picked 256, we got to the cabins and Amanda's was damaged so she got moved to deck 8 leaving me down there, typical my luck; my cabin was on deck 2, i called it steerage. Right at the bottom of the ship near the engine room oh and no fancy doors just white rusted water tight doors and pipes swear i had the same pipes Jack was handcuffed in Titanic, all reminded of the Titanic all you need when trying to sleep, vibrations and loud engine noises
Everyone else was on deck 8.

The sea was not to bad but later in the night became rough, put it this way you couldn't tell who was drunk or not because everyone couldn't walk straight lol.

Thursday, 3rd of September 2009

2009-09-08T13:27:00.004+01:00

Day started very well every thing organised which is very good for me, myself and Amanda left for Newcastle where our ferry would be departing from on Friday evening.
We had a very good run despite it raining all day.

After following Amanda's directions which lead me down a carpark with a bridge that was 8ft high and the wagon is 10ft6" as you can see we have had a problem but with my exceptional reversing skills managed to avert problems