Our initial plan was to arrive in Peja, just across the border from Montenegro, and meet friends of Paul and Angela’s for lunch before continuing to Prishtine, the capital, for dinner with them. In fact, as always, things took longer than expected so we had lunch before the border and arrived in Peja at 4:30. Whereupon the macaroni cheese went back in the oven to finish it and was promptly served with tales of 30 years working as missionaries. Thanks Alistair and Anke!

Dinner, then, was steak (I’ve been to the US a few times and trust me, these were the biggest and possibly best steaks I’ve ever seen), in a Prishtine restaurant at 10:30, followed by chat till 1:30. Well fed would be an understatement for how we all felt that evening.

The next day we were to get up promptly, and complete a list of jobs:

1. Blog, email, read news about Egypt etc
2. Get laundry done
3. Weld up broken exhaust on Ben
4. Investigate and fix slight diesel leak on Finn
5. Replace corroded ATF pipe in Finn
6. Buy and install new webcam (note lack of images across Kosovo)
7. Fill tanks with diesel (bigger job than it sounds, at 130 litres each)
8. Shopping for next day or two
9. Leave by 2pm

We bought a new section of pipe from a local garage (who knows where it came from) and drove to a petrol forecourt to replace it. Random Helpful Man stepped in and provided a rug to lie on, hot water to warm the pipe (essential) and lots of friendly advice in Albanian, and took over to re-assemble the bash plate (by which time I couldn’t feel my fingers). He wouldn’t even take our bar of chocolate to say thanks (we’ve so moved on from Whisky).

Needless to say, our second night with Paul and Angela was lovely too.

Bush camping in Greece

Continuing the tradition of blog posts running a few days behind reality, we spent the last couple of days moving on from Kosovo through Macedonia and Greece, are now in Istanbul. So here’s a few pictures of Montenegro. A country with a population similar to Edinburgh, existing entirely in towering, snow-covered mountains, it was beautiful but, at this time of year, inhospitable. Canyons which (the guide book assured us) rivalled the Grand Canyon lurked below every hair-pin bend, with barriers that wouldn’t stop a fast sparrow. Talking of which, the sparrows in Montenegro are fat, and have mohicans. Much cooler.

For anyone following the practicalities of our route, borders have generally taken between 5 and 45 minutes, with slightly longer to get into Turkey today (I ended up with 4 stamps on the visa in my passport, Louise only got one – think the other 3 are to do with the truck, but not sure what exactly…). We’ve had to buy insurance at the borders of all non-EU countries we have entered, which has varied from 10 to 50 Euros. We’ve also had to buy road tax for Slovenia and Montenegro, which were 15 and 10 Euros respectively. Our standard car insurance covers us for all EU countries and also Croatia. Bosnia, in which we spent all of about 20 minutes, didn’t demand either insurance or tax, so we got neither.

The campsite above is the only time we’ve actually had to camp in lying snow. We were glad not be be woken by a mob with pitchforks, led by The Woman Who Says “Ni!”

Some more pictures of the Croatian and Bosnian coastline, which I’d intended to put up last night before it got to 1:30 am. A particularly stunning and very simple drive. In the summer, it would be hiving with tourists; campsites every hundred yards through the towns, and every mile or two in the countryside. In mid winter, though, we often had the road to ourselves.

Hovering the mouse over each picture will give you a brief description.

A quick post tonight, as we’re staying with friends in Kosovo and it’s gone from 8pm via the first wash in 5 days, steak and beer to 1am. Afraid I can’t get photos to work properly (somebody please drown internet explorer 6).

I lie. Here’s a picture of Croatia:

Since being joined by the de la Hayes we’ve made steady progress to the East, with a night in Italy, two in Croatia and one in Montenegro. The scenery has been breathtaking and the roads far better than we expected. For 100 miles in Croatia we had a motorway all to ourselves, perhaps to make up for Nathan’s being fined for driving without headlights on (which he turned off by mistake 30 seconds before – our only run-in so far. We’re not allowed to mention the cracked fog-light any more). We’ve had great luck with campsites so far, finding secluded spots and twice feeling able to have a campfire to keep ourselves warm. Last night we were chased from our chosen site by an Old Woman Who Says Ni (with a stick), despite trying our best charm and a miniature of Dalwhinie 15. But we got better.

Every night has been progressively colder, always below zero. The condensation in the tent stopped being a problem once it froze as fast as it formed, but water has been posing a problem in the mornings. For tonight we’ve been welcomed by Paul and Angela, friends from Andy and Louise’s Glasgow Uni days, in Prishtina.\

Our current plan is to leg it to Ankara in the next few days, then decide what to do next. One thing is for certain – it will be cold! Bing Maps suggests that to get from Istanbul to Alexandria (in Egypt), we go via Turkey, Greece (all good so far), Bulgaria (odd), Romania (what?), Ukraine (going North now), Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Iraq (sounds fun, always wanted to go there), Syria (which neighbours Turkey), Israel (good luck with that after Syria – no open borders), through the Gaza strip to Egypt. Simples.