The Secret Diary - Day 6

Saturday, 26th October

Katy & Roy up before the lark to start harrying the agent again. Meanwhile, the rest of the party take the opportunity of a hot shower courtesy of the RMPs. Difficult to work out exactly what is: a) the correct procedure and: b) the problem with the customs. It appears that the Croatian customs are refusing to give clearance out of their country. Without that, the Bosnians won't let us into their's! The Croatian hang-up seems to be that our manifest shows that we are carrying coffee. They want to know how much and whereabouts it is on the lorries. We can't seem to get over to them that we have no idea how much or where it is as it is split between more than 2000 shoe boxes, which are themselves in various parts of the lorries. We ring our contact in Vitez, who promises to fax further documents to the border in the hope that these will clear the way for us.

Sue meets a 26-year-old soldier from Seaford, her home town. Presumably they live just around the comer from each other. Well, Seaford isn't that big. Possibly at school with Sue's daughter, though she (Sue's daughter) is a bit younger. His Scottish colleague shows us the way on his IFOR road map, then gives us the map. This will be a great help if we ever get through the border and into Bosnia.

1100 Kamensko (still). A vehicle bearing the logo of Children's Aid Direct has pulled up having just cleared the border from Bosnia into Croatia. Katy and Brian realise that we are heading for Children's Aid in Vitez, so go over. Gary takes baby David from his wife, and she and Katy go to harangue the customs again as the wife speaks the local lingo. Bosnian herself, perhaps. What a difference! Seems that it had not been appreciated we were carrying humanitarian aid, or so they say, and within 15 minutes we are cleared to approach the Bosnian customs.

1115 Kamensko (still). Bosnian customs man clambers into the back of the Leyland and starts investigating contents of boxes. Very interested in toys, hints that we should give him some for his boy but Tony is having none of it. Puzzled by a pair of golfing shoes so Tony, perched on top of a pallet, demonstrates golf swing. Brian thought he would fall out of the lorry.

1145 Kamensko (still). Cleared at last and we are now all in Bosnia. Actually we have been walking back and forth across the border at will, almost daring them to challenge us, but now all of us and all the vehicles are here officially. We say our goodbyes to the troops, who have given us a generous supply of bottled water. They tell us that it will take us 5 hours to get to Vitez.

Our route takes us through Livno, Bugojno, Donji Vakuf, Turbe and Travnik and we see many place names that became familiar during the extensive TV coverage of the war. The army names for the roads are Magpie, Pelican, Albatross, Opal, Gull and Diamond and the roads are well signed so even Brian, who was navigating, had no difficulty in following the route. In Donji Vakuf the bridge over the river has been blown. It has been replaced by a bailey bridge, with a British tank guarding it.

The scenery is, in many ways, much like we passed through yesterday. The main difference is that most of the villages are not completely destroyed. Some houses are only slightly damaged by bullets although the rest of the village stands in ruins with doors and window frames ripped out for firewood. We guess that the undamaged houses were, and still are, occupied by people supporting the winning faction. So this is ethnic cleansing. Elsewhere, people find shelter in ruined buildings, as is evidenced by the washing hanging out. The farmers are still very poor and we have seen muck-spreading and ploughing being done by hand with seed sown by walking up and down the field broadcasting it as in Biblical times. House cows are led into the fields on halters, with someone standing holding the halters while the cows graze. Most farmers have one horse to pull the cart or plough. Some are rich enough to have two, but only the really wealthy can afford a tractor.

Driving standards are abysmal: they surely can't have passed a test! Overtaking on blind bends is quite usual, and there seems to be complete disregard for the horses and carts which are common.

There is a very heavy presence of the IFOR troops. We see Dutch, Italian, Canadian and Malaysian vehicles as well as British. All the British troops wave as we pass, but some of the others are a bit standoffish.

British troops provide an unofficial escort

Minefields are more extensive, and there are a number of bailey bridges over rivers and spanning craters in the road. There was one particularly spectacular bridge high in the mountains. Had a lorry come off, it would have meant a drop of nearly 2000 feet. Roy said his air-brakes would be no good for that!

We discover a couple more minor problems. The water header tank on the Leyland has split. Nothing to worry about at this stage as the engine has shown no sign of overheating, but Roy will try to seal it with Bostik. The portable charger for Brian's mobile phone has been damaged and one of the wires has come unsoldered from the circuit board. That means that we are now reduced to just one mobile, but at the moment that is no problem as mobiles don't work in this part of the world.

1400 Between Travnik and Vitez. Spot a sign pointing to Children's Aid Direct warehouse. Roy takes the camper to investigate, but it is locked. Carry on towards Vitez and stop to ask directions. We were right before, but as we ask, a Brit with a Glaswegian accent comes along. Turns out to be Stuart Templeton, our contact.

1500 Vitez. We return to the warehouse and Stuart explains that he had accommodation for us last night, when he had expected us to arrive, and will see if it is still available. We ask about parking the vehicles. The lorries can stay in the compound, which has a 7-foot-high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire - and a guard armed with an automatic rifle. (The watch dog, covered in fleas, seems to relish attention and would make a delightful pet.) There could be problems if the camper is parked in the open, so we opt to stay in the compound with the vehicles. We all phone home from the Children's Aid office and set to tidying up. Stuart goes off, but will return in an hour or so to show us the nearest decent restaurant.

The compound had a good view of the cemetery beyond the fence

2200 Back in the compound after a good meal. Roy and Tony had just decided to settle down for the night in their bunks in the cab of the artic when we heard and then saw a convoy of cars coming off the mountain with horns blaring. Our guard shoulders his automatic rifle and stands by the gate. Sue, Manda, Katy and Brian decide to play it safe, but Bill goes to the gate to investigate. The convoy disappears into the town. Bill retires to bed to read, the other four settle for a game of Scrabble.

2230 A burst of automatic rifle fire from the town. Katy wins the Scrabble.

2300 The convoy returns, longer than before, and disappears into the mountains, still with horns blaring. Bed.