Over the border with our fingers crossed

4 May 2013

It was with some trepidation we approached the border crossing from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina as we were not insured to drive through the country.

It’s a complicated situation, and a long story, but few UK insurers cover  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia or Albania. When Dave shopped around for insurance in February 2012 we were led to believe that some of the above would be covered by the Saga Motorhome policy we took out. However when it came to renewing the policy this February the situation had changed and they would no longer issue a Green Card for any of those countries. We complained, they listened to the recordings of all the past calls we'd had with them, they agreed we had been misled and reduced the premium but that still left us with this dilemma.

Leaving Serbia at Mali Zvornik (on the east side of the beautiful river Drina) was no problem, we drove up to the passport kiosk where a uniformed officer barks…“Passports” ….stamp, stamp – onto Customs man “Open the back”… he climbs in and straight back out again – “OK – Goodbye”…..

Over the bridge we go and enter Bosnia and Herzegovina through Karakaj (on the west side of the same river) …. Passport Guy No. 1 barks – “Passports” …..stamp stamp….”Car documents”….. So it’s at this point I try and explain we don’t have insurance and want to buy some. He speaks no English and my limited knowledge of the language stretches to ‘hello’ (which I’ve already said to him with a meek smile),’please’, ‘thankyou’ and the word for insurance ‘osiguranje’.

Passport guy No. 2, who also speaks no English, comes over, looks at our GB number plate and asks for the documents again. Dave tries again to explain we want to buy insurance and asks if  is there an office where we can get it. He gets ‘escorted’ to one of a number of truck agency offices about a hundred meters away leaving me to watch the world go slowly and routinely by at a border post. After about 10 minutes he returns with the necessary piece of paper to satisfy Passport Guy No. 1. It cost us €30 for 5 days or we could have had 2 weeks for €75. No dodgy dealings, no mark-ups, all seemingly above board and legit.

It was a relatively easy process in the end but one we struggled to get clear definitive information on from the internet. Searching forums and blogs came up with a range of experiences other travellers have had at various border posts. Even the Bosnia and Herzegovina Tourist Information FAQ section is vague. So we have 5 days to travel through this beautiful country now – after that we will have to go through the whole process again in Montenegro and Albania….

Glamping

Friday 3rd May 2013

Our budget doesn't stretch to staying in campsites every night and we normally wild-camp in car parks and lay-by's - most spots we've found have been fantastic.

We have worked out that we definitely need to stop somewhere with facilities every five or six days to empty out the tanks and top up with water. We can stretch that out longer by finding safe water sources to top up the tank and we can sometimes empty the toilet tank at a petrol station when buying diesel but doing the laundry and having a really good shower means forking out for a night at a campsite.

We actually haven't had to stop at many sites to date. The first was at Fusina near Venice mainly for the convenience of being able to leave the camper parked securely for the day and get a ferry straight into the city centre. It wasn't cheap though, costing £36, considering hardly any of the facilities were open.We stayed at a couple of sites in Hungary and were delighted to find the one with a thermal pool attached. Its laundry facilities probably belonged in the 60's - Dave enjoyed the challenge of getting 2 weeks worth of washing done in a very lightweight top loader and tiny spinner. That was £12 well spent as it included the thermal pool use, the 'laundry' and free Wi-Fi.

In Romania we mainly wild-camped which was really easy. The sites we did stay at included the very basic but peaceful site in Ceahlau National Park costing £1.92 a night and Vuurplaats Campsite, run by a lovely Dutch couple, in Fundu Moldovei in the beautiful northern part of the country which set us back £12 a night. 

Serbia has proved to be a bit hit and miss to date with really limited wild-camping opportunities. On our first night we stayed in a campsite on the banks of the Danube just north of Belgrade with mozzies out in force and the camp guard dog barking all night long. Tonight however we are in the most luxurious campsite I think I have ever stayed in - in my life! It was opened 2 years ago, the individual pitches are separated by leafy trees, each section has water, electricity and a fire extinguisher. The toilets, showers are laundry facilities are still in pristine condition, spotlessly clean and just amazing, it even has an iron and ironing board! The thought that has gone into designing the site and money invested here makes the £16 fee worth every penny.

It is attached to Zasavica Nature Reserve and as I type this late at night I can hear all kinds of birds tweeting, cicadas 'singing', frogs croaking ....... and the guy in the caravan across the way snoring very loudly! It's so nearly perfect....

Rules of the road.....

April 30th 2013

The majority of the countries we have been to so far share a number of common 'rules and regulations' like speed limits and dipped lights on during the day. But each has its own little quirky rule or regulation we have to remember and adhere to.

We have just arrived in Serbia where it is the law to carry a tow rope. No sooner than we had bought one in Romania ready for crossing the border into Serbia it was out of its packet and we were helping pull a car out of a river ford it had got stuck in!

In Romania is was against the law to drive a dirty car - with the state of the roads we weren't sure exactly how you managed to avoid that. Overtake dangerously whilst on the mobile - no problem, dirty car - you're nicked!

In Hungary you needed to understand how to make an 'Emergency corridor' down the middle of a dual carriageway by moving left or right. Still not sure we understood how that worked but we never found a dual carriageway to drive on anyway!

In Slovenia you must not indicate when entering a roundabout - only when leaving it. Dave found that one really difficult to get the hang of, thankfully we weren't there that long.

In Italy we had to have a red and white reflective board to indicate an overhanging load (the bikes - not my belly!!)

In France you now have to carry two unused breathalyser kits in an attempt to cut down on the problems of drink-driving in the country.

And in Switzerland we were told that you could be fined for driving with snow on your roof  - that is also the case in Bosnia but we are hoping that now the temperatures are in the 30's it is not going to be a problem anymore and Dave doesn't have to climb up onto the roof of the van again with a brush to sweep a foot of snow off the van. I was never entirely sure whether our travel insurance would pay up if he had fallen off!!

'Drum Bun' - Have a nice trip

Monday 29th April 2013

As you drive out of every town and village in Romania there is a signpost wishing you a 'Drum Bun' meaning 'Have a nice trip'...and how we did during our 16 days in the country, covering 1600 miles.  

Having never been to Romania before on our 'transits' through Europe back in the 80's we arrived with no preconceptions and leave wanting to come back and discover more. The landscape, the housing styles, the new and old churches, the people all vary as you travel across the regions of this vast country.

It's hard to pick a small selection from the photographs we took but here's a few with brief descriptions.....

Wide load ahead....

Exterior mural depicting Siege of Constantinople on wall of Moldovita Monastery (dating back to 1537)

New church building going on everywhere - the brasher the better in some cases, gold roof on this one!

Typical roadside houses

Old wooden houses of Northern Romania

Fancy guttering - splash the cash

Bicaz Gorge (with Dave for scale)

Submerged tree stumps in 'Red Lake' - looks green though and was partly frozen when we visited!

Typical hillside in Northern Romania

Danube - forming the border with Serbia

Awful potholed roads - typical of most of the roads we drove on!

Banffy Castle - badly in need of restoration - like the roads!

Beautiful 'wild-camping' overnight stop

We found the Romanian people to be really friendly and extremely hard working. Of a weekend though they like nothing better than to head down to a river, take a picnick and light a fire. They all went back to their cosy homes leaving us in the peace and tranquility of our 'wild-camping' spot on our last night here. We're going to miss Romania....

Dave with a bottle of the local beer and campfire!