Near Mesokoveshden, Hungary

GPRS only internet - pictures are pretty much out from here on in...

Left Germany, crossed into Austria. Claire and Mark decided to leave Germany as they found the Mercedes advertising just too much. Then Stephen and I woke up. This was around 12pm. (We know the local time, hurrah!) We are informed (and there is photo evidence to prove it) that we missed quite beautiful scenery as we left Germany. Lunch on the go – this we knew would be a heavy driving day, and so we have kept moving. Almost directly through Austria, stopping only to refuel and swap drivers, we hit a traffic jam leading out of the country, into Hungary. We believe that this is due to the Hungarian Grand Prix scheduled for tomorrow – I’m sure Mark would really like to be watching tomorrow, but Claire would never allow it!

The first bad weather hit us after we trawled through Budapest, Hungary’s capital – a quick but torrential burst of rain. We saw one nasty car wreck during this time but no one appeared to have been hurt. Not much later the rain was gone.

The most important in-car achievements were a three-hundred point win at Scrabble by Claire against Stephen and my completion of Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I’m glad both Joyce and I got that out of our systems.

We are now looking for our campsite which is near Mesokoveshden. The place name has vowel accents all over it – I have not attempted them. Our Hungarian friends, the Tőroks informed us that it was pronounced thus: Me-su-ku-ve-sh-t.

Bettingen (near Frankfurt), Germany

We are well established in our first real campsite – although our ETA of late morning was woefully ambitious! We arrived early this evening, after a relaxed journey consisting of a short time in the Netherlands, and then most of the day on the Autobahns. We met a lovely administrator at this campsite, who rules with a benevolent air from atop his electric scooter. After a beautiful meal previously cooked by Claire (and now reheated by her fair hand) we navigated the shower arrangements and now look forward to an evening of film and Scrabble entertainment.

Funny sights on the road today; various pretty churches including a motorway stop chapel, a lovely Honda motorbike (with sidecar!), the Rhine and Mum at the wheel!

We’re very sad to hear about the Eurotunnel accident and subsequent delays, but thank God we didn’t suffer too badly at such an early stage in the journey!

It’s not as if we can report a huge change in lifestyle between here on the continent and back home as we sit in our furnished campervan replete with Sony Vaio laptop computer and 3G internet courtesy of Vodafone, a microwave, a gas hob and more music than the average HMV which allows us to experience all the joys of home with none of the space!

However it is truly incredible to watch the countryside and the roads change before one’s eyes through the windows between impromptu naps and Monty Python watching, (although each service station looks depressingly similar to the last!)

Thanks to everyone who is in touch with us, today's friend being Norman, for his heads-up about the Tunnel. On the left: the Rhine

On the road to Germany...

We survived our first rest stop.

As we race towards the Autobahns, Stephen hasn't yet reappeared from his bunk at the back of the campervan. Where I sleep, in the main living compartment, when people (parents) start moving, you wake up.

Spurred on by the bad truck-stop one-euro cappucinos, I have realised that I have some people to thank for stopping by to see us off yesterday. Thanks to Sean and Anasuya, our next-door neighbours for treating us to a wonderful meal Wednesday night, for agreeing to help with bins and the like, and for waving us off so energetically yesterday. Thanks to Norman and Sarah for coming around to wish us well, and swiftly pray "God help 'em"! Thanks to Bonnie and Keith for the music (the songs we're singing...) and thanks so much to Gerry Slessenger for cleaning the van before our departure, and giving us a verse for our journey:

"My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest" Exodus 33:14



Gerry, I hope you can see that in the picture on the right, we have held it close to our... heads.

Claire would like me to warn everyone that if they are expecting a birthday or anniversary card whilst we are away, she mistakenly took said cards with her, and that unless we find some Britisher-type heading in the opposite direction as us that could act as carrier pigeons they will see Moldova before seeing their respective recipients. We only hope that the lateness will be overshadowed by the curiosity value. We certainly hope that this will be the case with the cheque for our accountant that has also found its way along with us...

Belgium!

We are on our way!

We left Cheam, Surrey, UK at approximately 8.30pm, Thursday. I think it is now Friday. It must be. On the right is a photo of us leaving, praying we will see home again!

We caught an earlier Eurotunnel train than we were booked onto, and so we consider ourselves well ahead of schedule.

Mark found us a copy of Magnetic Scrabble, as you can see. Two games in, and cheating is already rife! I could tell you how many points the word ‘Belgium’ would be if thusly positioned, but as it is a staged pictoral reference to life in the van I shan’t bother.

For Belgium is where we are! Yes, after arriving in France we did the only British thing and decided to get out sharpish. 37 miles later and we find ourselves in the land of Hercules Poirot and posh chocolate.

As the scrabble board indicates, we are uncertain of the local time. It is a funny little thing to realise that, having arrived during the night, on the rather anonymous large vehicles carriages of the Eurotunnel that in fact, given BST and downright ignorance we don’t know what time it is. At the moment in England it is around 3am. By the time we get to a campsite tomorrow lunchtime, we should be in Germany, via the Netherlands.

As I write, we have stopped and plan to get a couple of hour’s kip (seeing as we are so ahead of schedule) and so I will sign
off now – I will leave you with a view from father’s cockpit. (That’s a GPS on the left, and a rear-view camera on the right. Hardcore get-away-from-it-all-camping this ain’t!)

Destination Part Two: Vascauti

The orphanage that we have links with in Moldova is named Vascauti (pronounced "Vascoot")

We don’t know very much about this orphanage in particular, other than there are around 250 children aged 7-17. They live in large dormitories with little to no personal space, young with old.

This is not uncommon amongst the 63 children shelters in Moldova, in which 11,482 children across the country are living from birth until the age of 19.

There are serious, country-wide issues with:

• Shelter facilities – roofs, walls and doors that leak, lack of bedding, lack of hot water, or even cold water, lack of space to let the children outside, lack of toiletries and hygiene products.

• Illness in the orphanages – huge percentages of children have diseases of the nervous system, deformities or mental illness.

• The fact that young adults leaving these orphanage leave with little support, and few job prospects.

• The huge number of children who are not orphaned through parent death, but through the poverty-stricken Moldovan parents who leave the country by to find work.

(There is much more information at Clipa Siderala, who are a charity that are raising awareness about the state of children’s shelters in Moldova.)

When we go to Vascauti

We think we will do some painting of the walls in the orphanage, but we hope to go in a spirit of willingness to help in any small way we can, make some links with the orphanage, both staff and children, and to share something of who we are and where we come from.

We also plan to arrive (customs permitting!) with some sports, stationery and art equipment to give to the children, much of which was donated by our friends at Christ Church Ewell (http://www.christchurchewell.com/).

We leave in two days time, and things are still very relaxed here. Apart from the terrifying amount of declarative paperwork to be filled out, things to be weighed, and camping arrangements to be finalised. The relaxed bit may have been an exaggeration.

The Destination: Part One

The BBC's Country Profile on Moldova is very useful to those of us who couldn't find Moldova on a map!

Here are a couple of choice extracts:

Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova emerged as an independent republic following the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

Two-thirds of Moldovans are of Romanian descent, the languages are virtually identical and the two countries share a common cultural heritage.

Moldova is one of the very poorest countries in Europe and has a large foreign debt and high unemployment. Its once-flourishing wine trade has been in decline and it is heavily dependent on Russia for energy supplies.

• Population: 4.3 million (UN, 2005)
• Capital: Chisinau
• Area: 33,800 sq km (13,050 sq miles)
• Major languages: Moldovan, Russian
• Major religion: Christianity
• Life expectancy: 64 years (men), 71 years (women)
• Monetary unit: 1 leu = 100 bani
• Main exports: Foodstuffs, animal and vegetable products, textiles
• GNI per capita: US $880 (World Bank, 2006)
• Internet domain: .md
• International dialling code: +373

Last year, Moldova was in the international press following a dispute with Russia over gas prices and suffered for a time without its much needed gas supply before compromises were made on both sides.

The players, the map, and the van.

Only very few days remain until we set off on Thursday!




Mark and Claire (third and second from left) have been busy planning the 'out' journey. We will take the Eurotunnel late Thursday night, and then we have only about three days to get to the Romanian/Moldovan border - where we should be met by friends Silvia & Horia Nedelciuc. Upon reaching the northern area of Moldova, we will spend several days at Vascauti, an orphanage near Floresti, Saroca. We will then have an opportunity to take a more leisurely return journey, seeing the changes as we move west, toward home. Mark and Claire will alternately take care of the driving.

Stephen (15, right) is on a camp at Lymington until Thursday so his preparation for the trip will be short and hurried, no doubt. Stephen has already staked out his place in the van, and is updating his music collection to reflect the gravity of the journey required.

David (17, left) has been placed in charge of this blog, impromptu morale boosting and moaning about laws that restrict him from driving the van.


The Van (behind the family!) is a Ford Rimor Superbrig. It sleeps seven, sits six, and is now very cool within, we hope - after installation of several fan-like devices! As a family we have had one overnight stay at a campsite in it - an experimental jourey to see good friends for an anniversary party, and other good friends on a longboat (their journey, around the canals of the UK is documented here: www.shoponpier.co.uk/Week1.htm)

Information about Moldova, the orphanage, and what we are doing there will follow soon.