Albania

We arrived at the border a little apprehensive. We'd heard horror stories of Albania and our expectations were low. These were immediately reinforced when we came to a single lane wooden bridge and found ourselves covered in kids. It was like a scene from a zombie film with them banging on the windscreen and hanging from the mirrors! I've seen Shaun of the Dead so out came the cricket bat.... We are always prepared for the throngs of kids who stick to Taffy like limpits in poorer countries and have a large selection of English sweets to pass out to try to get them off! We shook most of them free with the sweet Manoeuvre but one determined kid was still hanging on to our wing mirror as we got halfway across the bridge flapping like a flag on a windy day. A quick squirt of the windscreen wipers and he went flying over the railings and into the river below busy opening his wine gums on the way down! I expect he was used to it.

Albania camping was our first night stop. Run by a lovely Dutch family it was the best campsite we've stayed on all summer. It even had a pool which the resident duck loved! We made this our base for a couple of days and went cycling in the area- much to the amusement of the locals. The area was flat and had a lot of brightly painted new villas as well as some ramshackle houses. The Dutch family came here to provide help to the locals with health care and even accommodation in the winter so the area is by no means well off but there were numerous villas that wouldn't have looked out of place in Florida and the school children looked well dressed and happy though that may have just been them laughing at us on the tandem! We really enjoyed our time there but eventually decided we had to at least look as though we were serious about heading to azerbaijan so moved on to Tirana.

Our camp here was Hotel Baron just south of the city and meant we had to fight our way through the bedlam that is Albanian driving. People just drive for themselves and consequently everything just crawls along constantly pushing and shoving to gain an extra inch. Linda navigated is through perfectly and we squeezed into the hotel car park after the owner had brought us a ladder and a saw to trim the trees back! They taxied is into the city and we got our next surprise. We had expected a delapidated city in true ex communist traditions but we found streets full of cafés and restaurants decorated to standards St Tropez would be envious of. There were chandeliers, courtyards with trendy sofas under a canopy of trees and some of the most fantastically furnished interiors we have ever seen. These cafés were not isolated one offs but the norm, and there were dozens of them. You would be hard pushed to find anything to match these in London and certainly Norwich has nothing in the same league (though being Norwich it's used to that). We sat in a park and had a drink beside some wonderful fountains and whilst the sites to see can be as the guide says, on one finger, you could spend a month going from cafe to cafe! The city itself is full of new high rise offices and flats many of which look very modern and very expensive too. There are numerous old Soviet style flats though they appeared to be in much better condition and looked after than blocks we have seen in Romania Bulgaria etc. We had a really nice day wandering around.

Berat is 3 UNESCO sites in one! That was our next stop about 150km drive from Tirana most of the way on good dual carriageway but the last 30 on a road in desperate need of replacement and we spent a long time going at 20mph. But the trip was well worth it. The old town is a well preserved Ottoman town nestled on the side of a hill overlooked by a castle which in turn has another inhabited Ottoman town inside it almost perfectly preserved. From the castle you overlook the river below and yet another Ottoman town on the far river bank. One day this site will be one of the most visited in Europe. We had the place to ourselves and in the evening went promenading up and down the main street with what seemed like the whole town.

The drive to Macedonia was easy and as we entered the mountains very picturesque with the road snaking its way up the side of one mountain for what we think must be Taffys highest border crossing yet. Our last view of the country was of numerous enormous Albanian mushrooms flanking the road, not of the Yuck I don't like mushroom variety, but concrete pillboxes. These litter the country and there is 1 for every 4 people apparently. A monument to a past that Albania is rapidly leaving behind.

And its goodbye to Taffy!

Meet Taffy II. !!

Entering Montenegro you are immediately struck by how crowded it is, how much new development is going on, the many road works and the prosperity of the place. Again, a simple line on the map makes so much difference to a persons life.

Kotor is a UNESCO world heritage walled town perfectly preserved with narrow paved streets, tall houses, churches and naturally an enormous castle sitting above it on the side of the mountain. It is at the end of what Montenegro calls the most southerly fjord in europe, but is in fact a Ria (a steep sided sunken valley flooded by the sea) not a fjord as it as not formed by a glacier. Never thought my Geography A level would come in useful! It is unquestionably a gorgeous town in one of the most picturesque 'fjords' we've ever been to. We spent the afternoon wandering through the squares and in the evening returned to eat out at a little Pizzeria under the towering gaze of the illuminated castle walls. We parked about 150 metres from the town right on the edge of the water and easily had the best bedroom view on offer surpassing that of the enormous cruise ship 'the World' tied up a stones throw away.

Budva is not home to a beer but another picturesque walled town this time nestled on the coast in a small bay. Much more touristy than Kotor - which took some doing - it was surrounded by hotels and nice beaches and apparently in a few weeks will be heaving.

A few kilometres further down the coast is Sweaty Stefan (Sveti Stefan really). This tiny town is a dalmatian Mont St Michel and is nowadays a large hotel. You see pictures of the town on most montenegran tourist literature. All these 3 towns are within 20kms of each other.

Our second night was spent at Lake Skadar. We headed to the visitors centre aiming to overnight in the car park and found it to be a few boards, a couple of stalls selling boat trips and a hotel. Not quite what we expected! Fortunately we were collared by Mark a local hotel owner who said we could stay behind his hotel for nothing, again right on the edge of the lake and with a wonderful view too. We met two germans Anita and Rainer and arranged a morning boat trip to see the local birds on the lake - the biggest bird reserve in Europe. The drawback being it sailed at 7am and the highlight was seeing the Dalmatian Pelicans! After a cooked breakfast we spent the day doing odd jobs and recovering from the early start and the over indulgence of our second breakfast!

Montenegro is another real gem. It looks like Slartibartfast practiced on Norway before doing here. The country is a mixture of mountains, lakes, breathtaking coastline, picturesque towns and stunning coastal road. For those ill educated in the works of Douglas Adams it looks like Disney were asked to design a Mediteranean country.

It also had the most challenging roads we've encountered for Taffy. One campsite we couldn't get to because the road sloped sideways so much we thought we were going to topple over, another had a welcome arch which we eventually almost got stuck under and had to reverse out of and then backwards down a tiny lane! We had to stop to measure a tunnel with a stick and then Linda had to go through it and stop traffic so Taffy could sit in the centre of the road as we went through. And when we stayed at the national park we had navigate a tiny right angle bend with a gaping hole in it that went through to the water with our rear wheels about 1mm from the hole! I was ably assisted by a few locals all shouting their advice but I have learned to ignore everyone except Linda as that means I have someone to blame when it all goes wrong!
Albania next.

Emergency Update!

The sun is out!

Rain rain go away!

We turned up at the station at about 9:20 and an hour and forty minutes later the train turned up! Fortunately Zagreb isn't the largest of cities to visit and we easily walked around all the main sights in the afternoon. You can see a grand city struggling to get out in the centre with little evidence of the horrid communist concrete monstrosities. A number of the older buildings plaster is falling off and in some empty shop windows, signs in English, just small enough to make you wander over to have a look at them warn you of the danger of falling tiles!

But many of the buildings have been renovated beautifully and many more are surrounded in canvas being done up. Like LJubliana, Zagreb will be a majestic city in a few years time.

We eventually spent 5 nights at our campsite near Karlovac. We met a Welsh couple who we got on with really well despite their Welshness and spent too much time in the bar!

We moved on to the Plitvice National Park to see the waterfalls and generally be fleeced by the Croatian tourist industry. Parking £9 entry £15 each and a bottle of fanta £2 a bit like being back in the UK. The park itself was amazing with hundreds of waterfalls and it seemed the entire school population of a small country being eagerly followed around by hordes of Japanese tourists taking photos of everything. We always thought we took a lot of pictures but I am sure some of the tourists had their cameras super glued to their heads. It was one do the few days when we had some sun and with the waterfalls creating rainbows and the unusual colours of the lakes and greenery it was a great day.

We left the lakes and drove south to Split after a night of torrential rain. Tents had been moved into the toilet blocks and Noah would have been hurriedly rounding up animals had he been there it really was almost biblical.

The road runs near the border with Bosnia and we passed many abandoned houses with no roofs and nature gradually reclaiming the land. It was quite strange.

We arrived at Split and managed to park up virtually with our van on the beach, got out of Taffy And who should be standing behind the van than our stalkers the welsh couple! So another evening in the bar whilst the North sea crashed along the shore and the arctic wind blew steel grey clouds across the sky hurriedly until it could find one full of rain to empty on us.

The next morning the camp site was a wash and the coastal road past fields and campsites invisible under a grey blanket of water. We even went through towns where the fire brigade were pumping building out.

The sun peaked out just as we past Dubrovnik presumably so we could see the flooding more clearly before vanishing again behind the advancing March of more ominous black clouds. Come to sunny Croatia it says on the tourist literature - we'd love too if we knew where it was!

We are now holed up like Scott of the Antarctic just north of the Montenegro border overlooking a bay that looks more like Rockall in December than the Adriatic, its cold windy and just stopped raining - but only to allow it to hail instead. "I'm going outside I may be some time"

PS. When I spell checked this it tried to replace Adriatic with sadistic.

Leaving the EU

After the successful catendectomy we drove on to Ljubliana and for someones benefit I feel obliged to point out it is the capital of Slovenia not Estonia! No names but you know who you are Ali.

Crossing the border we began to lose the German Motorhomes (not that they were following us or anything) and we weren't surprised when we arrived at the campsite to be joined by a young British couple. We were however surprised when another British couple turned up in there caravan - they must have been at least in their 70's. That made 4 brits on a campsite, we haven't seen that many Brits on a campsite since Luxor, well, not outside the UK.

Ljubliana is a gem. We cycled in from the camp on dedicated cycle paths with the right of way over cars and arrived in the middle of a festival celebrating the countries of the EU being held by schools. There was singing, stalls with food from each country (except the UK - presumably because they didn't know how to cook Chicken tikka Masala) models of famous features and a great atmosphere too. All of this being held on the river bank right in the centre of the city.

Much of the centre is still being renovated and it is in places a bit of a building site. But the finished areas are wonderful, large grand colourful central european buildings built in the 18th century looking over street cafes and cobbled pedestrian streets. It is a mini Budapest and in many ways much nicer. It is a small city so has a compact centre and retains a charm and quaintness that larger cities do not. We loved it and plan to return when it is finished.

The caves at Postojnska were our next stop. Jon said he'd never seen anything like them - at least till his brother phoned later that night to say he had been to them too - with Jon and their parents when they were at school. They really are spectacular especially seeing as you have to take a little train into the mountain to see the best bits. The train weaves through tunnels and in and out of small caves beautifully lit filled with Stalagmites and Stalagtites. It fare races along and feels almost like you are in an Indiana film, especially as there are two tracks side by side that often split and take different paths and tunnels.

As we left the EU and crossed the bridge into Croatia the budding prosperity of Slovenia was replaced by roads that were a patchwork repairs from the last 20 years, houses in desperate need to renovation and tin roofs. The bridge into Croatia looked as if no one knew who owned it and would eventually fall down because no one was prepared to repair it. It us amazing the difference 10 metres of bridge and the words "Welcome to the EU" can make to a countries prosperity and in turn to an individuals life. It really is as simple as one side of the river you were in Oxfordshire and the other side the third world.

The road to our campsite at Karlovac was tiny. Taffy had no room either side in patches and we couldn't see road at all in the mirrors underneath us. Eventually it widened to our relief, which was short lived as we viewed the pontoon bridge. Crossing it was fun linda was hanging on to the door and the car behind waited until we were nearly off before following!

So Zagreb next.

Is that a cat?

We left Würzburg and began on our route south towards Georgia, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (again) before coming back to Europe. There is something ominous about our destination this year and that could be that the list of countries above also spells GARAGE!

We had driven a few kilometres out of Würzburg before we noticed the noise. It was a weird screaming from the engine - a bit like we'd got a cat stuck inside the gearbox. Uh oh. Just the sound of the new part bedding in perhaps? By the time we reached Munich the cat was in agony and clearly wasn't bedding in but more likely Checking out one of its nine lives so we decided it was time we visited another garage!

Every time we stop in Germany and look for a garage there is always one within 2 kilometres of us. Hopefully this isn't because MAN trucks only go for 2 kms before needing attention (though at the present rate of problems we haven't ruled this out yet).

Again the garage was very helpful and had an engineer look at it for us immediately. We drove round with the floor up in Taffy trying to see exactly where the cat was and eventually it was diagnosed that the garage in Würzburg hadn't put a screw in properly which they did for us. They tested Taffy by taking it out for a short drive and as we watched her drive off we both couldn't help secretly hoping they might not bring her back!

Still, all is fixed now and we were pleased to not find any stray cats in the engine. We have now been away for 20 nights and have visited 3 MAN garages and 1 motorhome repairer! Lets hope that's our last garage of the trip!

Last problem before Georgia!

Well the overland brigade will tell you time and time again that newer truck Chassis are a nightmare because of the electronics and computers and we were beginning to agree with them after our spate of dashboard errors. But, we thought, what if the errors we get are genuine and its the garages in the UK that are failing to understand the diagnostics properly? One more visit to a MAN dealer then!

The dealer in Wurzburg was very swish compared to Norwich. Lots of new workshop bays and engineers who could actually speak German and English, as opposed to the English variety who spoke a kind of what you may generously call effin English. The manager came out to deal with us and got his engineers to plug in the diagnostic PC. After a brief consultation they explained there was a part that was broken. It was still functioning but would get worse and worse until we would break down. To replace it would take 6 hours and cost a small fortune, but after a few more phone calls to MAN he informed us that MAN would pay 62% of this.

So we are back in today having the part replaced. For once we are pleased with the electronic system. Had we had an all mechanical truck then probably the first we would know about the malfunctioning part is when we broke down half way up a mountain in Georgia but the diagnostic computer had spotted the malfunctioning part earlier and hopefully saved us from a worse fate.

We've had to spend the weekend here waiting for the part to arrive and its a Holiday - May day - so the village we are staying at held a festival where the young men of the village erected a huge silver birch tree outside the fire station. The young ladies helped the children decorate whilst it lay flat - completely blocking the fire engines from being used - and then it took about 40 minutes for the guys to lift it into place. Being Germany there was an endless supply of huge hot dogs and frothy beer and our wine was served in half pint mugs! It was an excellent evening.

The weather has now gone rather damper and cooler so on Tuesday we will head south - no really this time!

Just one more day....

We're now at Kitzinger near Wurzburg on the Main. Taffy is parked facing the river in a lovely stellplatz a short walk form the town centre or more importantly, the Ice Cafe where we end up each evening for an ice cream! We've cycled up and down stream for the last two days in glorious sunshine by the edge of the river on dedicated cycle paths passing numerous Disneyesque walled towns with the temperature in the high 20's. The river had carved a small valley that is now lined with vines and is in our impression the loveliest of all the rivers in Germany.

We'd planned on staying 1 night here but tonight will be our fourth! We'll begin hearing south again tomorrow, honest!
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